'xmW% 



LINDSAY & BLAKISTON, PHILADELPHIA, 

PUBLISH 

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE, 



THOMAS ARNOLD, D.D., 

AUTHOR OF "lectures ON MODERN HISTORY," "THE HISTORY OF ROME," &C., &e. 

In two volumes, 12mo. 

Vol. I. contains « ITS COURSE, ITS HINDRANCES, AND ITS HELPS." 
Vol. IL contains "ITS HOPES, ITS FEARS, AND ITS CLOSE." 

PRICE, FOE. THE TWO VOLUMES, $2.00 



The Publishers give heloic a few only of the very many flattering 
notices they have received of this ivork: — 

We will venture to affirm that with the single exception of Bisnop Butler's, no sermons have ever 
been printed which oontam so many " seeds of thought." No unthinking man can read them without 
being benefited. Our obligations to Arnold are so great that we cannot let this opportunity pass with- 
out recommending his works. Now that the American publishers have printed this work so well and 
so cheaply, let them be encouraged. We hope every clergyman and every intelligent layman will pro- 
cure this volume, and thus encourage the publishers to print all of Arnold's sermons, which in the 
£nghsh edition are in six volumes, and cost to import upwards of twenty dollars. — Southern Church- 
man. 

His aim is to make his readers acquainted v/ith themselves ; to impress them with the necessity of 
controliing; their passions; to unfold to them the principles by which they should be governed; to 
exemplify the nature and the difficulties of piety ; and prompt them to a virtuous, a religious, and a 
useful life. He is never common-place nor prolix. His thoughts are clear and fresli, often unfijlding his 
subjects in new aspects, and leading the mind into fields never before explored, and glowing with objects 
of unexpected interest and beauty. — Lord's Review. 

The Christian life is set forth in these volumes with all that deh'ghtful fervor and force which charac- 
terized the late admirable author. They contain an exhibition of principles that are of universal interes 
to the religious reader. — Harpers' Magazine. 

Dr. Arnold was one of those men who make their mark upon the age in which they live. To great 
experience of life and knowledge of character, he uniled sound common sense, and, with erudition, he 
possessed what may he termed a capacity for practical generalizing. As a teacher of youth and as a 
clergyman, he " magnified his office," and his writings carry the evidence of the respect in which he 
held his vocation, and of the thorough manner in which he prosecuted it. — North American. 

We would earnestly counsel all parents to studi/ this book, and to place it in the hands of their 
sons. — Criterion. 

We honor the boldness of the man, we admire his scholarship, and we love his piely.— Evangelist. 



Irtpi^iiJp P|irtrit/0 



Well it is for the Protestant rause, which, in some respects, never had a more valiant champion, that 
Richard VVliately is still Archhishnp of Dublin. We most cordially recommend his writings. They 
can never be read without inslruclioa.—Episcojml Recorder. 

LINDSAY & BLAKISTON, PHILADELPHIA, PUBLISH 

I. 

SCEIPTUEE EEYELATIONS 

CONCERNING A FUTURE STATE. 

In one volume, 12mo. Price, 75 cents. 

This work can hardly fail to be interesting; to the people of God, discussing, as it does, the most im- 
portant of all concerns, our relations to a future stale of existence.— Pres6!/teria!i. 

We can, with great confidence, recommend it as one of the greatest efforts of mind of the present 
generation-— Southern Baptist. 

It is an able contribution to theological science, and every minister of th-e gospel, and every mau 
who has capacity or relish for such subjects, should read it.— Presbyterian of the West. 

No book is more needed in this age of scepticism, and no mau better qualified to write it than 
Bishop Whately.— CArisiiua Chronicle. 

We most cheerfully recommend this volume to our readers as an antidote for the errors of the 
day. — Christian Secretary. 

II. 

SCRIPTURE REVELATIONS 

CONCERNING GOOD AND EVIL ANGELS. 

In one volume, 12mo. Price, 63 cents. 

The clear, cogent, and logical writings of the eminent Archbishop of Dublin, can never fail to secure 
readers. When he asks attention, he is sure to have something to say which is deserving of a hearing, 
and is always amply prepared to reward the attention he has excited. In the treatise before us, he 
puts to flight the ignorant unbelief of those who profess to discredit the existence and influences of evil 
spirils. Each topic is discussed with eminent clearness, and the Scripture doctrine is evolved in a 
manner highly satisfactory. 

III. 

THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS, 

RELIGIOUS AND MISCELLANEOUS, 

FROM THE WRITINGS OF ARCHBISHOP WHATELY. 

In one volume, 12mo. Price, $1.00. 
There is a directness of aim and argument, and a wide compass of mind, in the Writings of Arch- 
bishop Whately, which commend tlieni to thoughtful, discriminating readers. — LutJieran Observer. 

IV. 

LECTURES ON THE LIVES AND WRITINGS 

or 
OUR LORD'S APOSTLES. 

In one volume, 12mo. (Preparing.) 
Intellectual vigour, extensive erudition, strong common sense, and manly argument, commend his 
work to the attention of students and general readers.— CArisimn Observer. 



THOUGHTS 



AND 



APOPHTHEGMS 



FROM THE WRITINGS 






AECHBISHOP WHATELY. 

(I 



Invenies etiam difjecti membra poet*. 

Horace. 

The perception of analogies — the exercise of that powerful abstraction which seizes the 
point of agreement in a number of otherwise dissimilar individuals — it is ill this that the 
greatest genius is shown. — Bishop Copij:ston. 




PHILADELPHIA: 

LINDSAY & BLAKISTON. 

1856. 



sin 



e 






^5^ 



INTRODUCTION 



'^ Lr 



In presenting to the Public a collection of Thoughts and 
Apophthegms from the writings of Archbishop Whately, the 
Compiler would desire to remind the Reader, that the 
Author, from whose works this selection is made, is not one 
of those fragmentary writers who deal in insulated passages 
of wisdom and of wit, and resemble, as has been remarked, 
" Chinese painters, who represent each single object admi- 
rably, but have no perspective." His works, on the con- 
trary, are all complete treatises, of which any short extracts 
can be but the mere shreds and parings ; and consequently, 
it is only too obvious, that as an exposition of his views, 
this, or any, collection of detached passages, must neces- 
sarily be somewhat imperfect. Yet these treatises, though 
all specimens of close and consecutive reasonings are so 
rich in comprehensive and suggestive maxims, in calm and 
lucid statements of great principles, and in the varied 
illustration of them by familiar examples, that the Compiler 
cannot but anticipate a favourable reception for a selection 
the design of which is to present in a small compass, and 

(ix) 



X mTRODUCTION. 

thus render more generally accessible, some of those preg- 
nant principles and suggestive thoughts. Indeed, the 
Compiler cannot but feel, that whatever apology may be 
required for the work, is due not to the Public, but to the 
Author, whose thoughts, presented in this detached form, 
must be more or less injuriously affected by separation from 
the context. 

This needed apology is now respectfully offered to him, 
together with grateful thanks for the characteristic liberality 
with which permission to make a selection from his writings 
has been accorded. As the Author has no connection with 
the publication, or even knowledge of the mode in which his 
permission has been made use of, the Compiler is alone 
responsible for all beyond that permission. 

It remains only to add, that the miscellaneous thoughts on 
a very great variety of subjects, part of which has been 
devoted to that most important of all subjects, the " Love 
of Truth in Religious Inquiry;" and the passages bearing 
upon it, have been selected in very earnest hope that some 
of them might serve, under the influence of the Divine 
Spirit, to implant the precious germs of that desire for 
truth, for its own sake, which gives singleness of eye to 
perceive, and singleness of purpose to pursue it. 



By TmusftCf 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Introduction - ^^ 

I. 

Truth, the distinguishing characteristic of Christianity ► 13 

II. 

On some obstacles to the attainment of Truth, and to its progress 

in the World 19 

I. Indifference about Truth ib. 

II. Dread of the Progress of Truth 24 

III. Bias of Judgment 28 

IV. Aversion to Doubt, and unnecessary Delay in 

Decision • • 35 

V. Desire of a supposed HappyMedium 42 

VI. The love of System 44 

VII. Dread of the Character of Inconsistency 47 

VIII. Suppression of the Exercise of Reason 49 

IX. Abuse of Reason 54 

X. Superstition 59 

XI. The Love of Novelty 64 

XII, The dread of Innovation 68 

XIII. Undue Deference to Human Authority 72 

XIV. The Love of Approbation and the Dread of Censure. . 85 

XV. Mistaken Regard to Unity 87 

XVI. Party-Spirit 95 

XVn. The Spirit of Persecution 98 

(xi) 



xn CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

XVIII. Eegard to Seeming Expediency 105 

1. Pious Frauds ih. 

2. Reserve and double Doctrine 109 

3. Modern Theory of Development 118 

The True alone the Expedient 124 

III. , 

On the Moral Faculty 127 

IV. 

On Faith and Spiritual Guidance 135 

V. 

On the Appeal of Christian Truth to the Affections 142 

VI. 

Miscellaneous 149 to 442 



THOUGHTS AND APOPHTHEGMS 



LOVE OF TRUTH IN RELIGIOUS INQUIRY. 



^tlltlj, 



THE DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTIC OF CHRISTIANITY. 



The question, "What is true?" ought to stand on the 
threshold of every religious enquiry. 

If the question, "What is true," be asked only in the 
second place, it is likely to receive a very different answer 
from what it would, if it had been asked in the first place. 

That what is true and right loses, incalculably, its benefi- 
cial effect on the mind, when received on any ground than 
because it is true and right. 

Truth is, in such an especial manner, the characteristic of 
the religion of Christ, that, in our Lord's reply to Pilate, He 
points it out as defining the very nature of His kingdom, of 
His objects, and his claims : — " For this cause came I into 
the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth." And 
2 (13) 



14 TRUTH, THE DISTINGUISHING 

when, on other occasions, asserting His claims, He says, " If 
ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed, 
and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you 
free," — " When the Spirit of Truth is come. He will guide 
you into all truth." — " Sanctify them through thy Truth; 
thy word is Truth." Thus, too, the Apostles repeatedly use 
the words "Truth" and "Faith" to designate the Christian 
religion. It is Truth resting on evidence, and requiring 
Faith in it, on the ground of its truth. 

The Christian religion made its appearance as the common 
disturber of the peace of the world, because it put an end to 
the tranquil influence of custom, authority, credulity, sen- 
timent, and imagination ; forced men upon the disagreeable 
task of examining evidence, searching records, and proving 
all things ; and arrayed in opposite opinions, children against 
their parents, subjects against their princes, and the people 
against the priest. 

Christianity, contrasted with the Jewish system of em- 
blems, is Truth in the sense of reality, as substance is op- 
posed to shadows ; and, contrasted with the Heathen My- 
thology, is Truth as opposed to falsehood. " The truth as 
it is in Jesus" was to supersede the heathen idolatry, by 
destroying it; and "the Law and the Prophets," not by 
destroying, indeed, but by fulfilling them. 

The Heathen Mythology not only was not true, but was 
not even supported as true ; it not only deserved no faith, 
but it demanded none. The very pretension to truth — the 
very demand of faith — were characteristic distinctions of 
Christianity. 



CHARACTERISTIC OF CHRISTIANITY. 15 

To believe in Christianity, -witliout knowing why we believe 
it, is not Christian faith, but blind credulity. 

The word knowledge, strictly employed, implies three 
things ; viz., Truth, Proof, and Conviction. 

To say that there is the more virtue in Christian Faith, 
the less it is founded on evidence, is to forget that the Lord 
Jesus Himself — He who "taught as one having authority 
and not as the Scribes " — He who said not, as the Prophets 
of old, men sent from God, " Thus saith the Lord" — but, as 
Immanuel, God dwelling with His people, "/say unto you," 
— appealed to His works as bearing witness of Him ; and 
claimed the Divine "power to forgive sins," on the ground 
that He had the no less Divine power to bid the palsied 
cripple "take up his bed and walk." 

The Apostles came forward rather in the character of wit- 
nesses, than as authoritative guides ; and they work miracles 
and appeal to Scripture, not so much for the purpose of es- 
tablishing their own right to deliver doctrines, as to prove the 
doctrines which they teach. And as with their first teaching, 
so also is it with the subsequent propagation of their religion. 
Though the Authors of the Gospels wrote, under the extra- 
ordinary superintendence of the Holy Spirit, those four dis- 
tinct statements of evidence of matters of fact, yet it is not 
as the organs of inspiration they come forward. Their lan- 
guage is not, "Thus saith the Lord;" but, "He that saio it 
bare record." These things were " delivered unto us by 
those who, from the beginning, were eye-witnesses and minis- 
ters of the word." They have so shaped their writings as to 
avoid what the method of authority would require, and force 



16 TRUTH, THE DISTINGUISHING 

forward "what the method of examination would demand ; 
and have thus shown pretty clearly their intention, that the 
religion which they preached upon the ground of evidence, 
should be maintained and propagated also ujDon the same 
ground. " These things" — says the Evangelist John, speak- 
ing of Christ's miracles, wrought in the presence of His dis- 
ciples — "were written that ye might believe . . . and . . . 
believing ye might have life through His name." 

It has been said by a modern writer, " that " the poor ig- 
norant uninstructed peasant who says, ' I believe my religion 
because I have been told so by those who are wiser and 
better than myself; my parents told me so, and the clergy- 
man of the parish told me so,' comes nearest to the answer 
of the Crospel" to that answer which the apostle Peter 
directs us to be ready to give " to every one that asketh a 
reason for the hope that is in us." And yet it is manifest 
this answer could have been given, when the Gospel was first 
preached, by no Christian ; but might be, and was, given by 
every one of his Pagan neighbours. 

This is to represent the Apostles of Christ as saying to 
those of whom they would make converts, " Let every 
succeeding generation receive quietly the religion handed 
down by its fathers, but let this generation act otherwise. 
Take up novelty for this once to oblige us, and ever after ad- 
here to antiquity." 

He who professes adherence to the national religion of 
England, on the ground that "it is the religion of his 
fathers," forgets, as do the hearers who applauded the senti- 
ment, that, on this principle, the worship of Thor and Woden 
would claim precedence. 



CHARACTERISTIC OF CHRISTIANITY. 17 

In tliese our days, there are an immense number of per- 
sons, who, professing faith in the Gospel, and zeal for its 
support, yet assure us that enquiries into its evidences are 
likely to lead to infidelity. What would such a person say 
of some professed friend coming forward as his advocate, and 
saying, " My friend here, is a veracious and worthy man, 
and there is no foundation for any of the charges brought 
against him ; and his integrity is fully believed in by persons 
who thoroughly trust him, and who have never thought of 
reason or enquiring about his character at all ; but, of all 
things, do not make any investigation^ for the more you en- 
quire and examine, the less likely most people will be to be- 
lieve in his integrity !" Surely a man so defended would 
exclaim, " Deliver me from my friends, and I fear not my 
enemies." 

Those who boldly stand out and court enquiry, and bring 
forward cogent reason for their conviction,- are reproached, 
by a certain modern writer, with infirm faith and timidity. 
Timidity of all things ! One is reminded of the story of 
some Indian savages servino; as allies to the British in 
America, who, when the allied force was attacked by the 
enemy, ran and took shelter in the woods, while the British 
troops stood firm under a heavy fire, and repulsed the assail- 
ants. It was expected that their Indian friends would have 
been full of admiration at this display of superior valour; 
but, on the contrary, their interpretation of it was, that the 
British soldiers were such cowards that they were too miLch 
frightened to run away. Almost every chapter of the New 
Testament convicts the Lord Jesus and His followers of that 
"timidity," in appealing to the evidence of miracles and pro- 
phecies, which is censured and derided. 
2* 



18 CHARACTEKISTIC OF CHRISTIANITY. 

The danger of decrying all appeal to evidence is not con- 
fined to a mere want of adequate evidence for the truth of 
the Christian religion, but something distinct from, and 
beyond, this ; the danger, namely, of a contrary presumption 
arising. It is not merely, that men, to "whom sufficient 
evidence has not been furnished, will be likely, themselves, 
to reject what has not been proved to them; but that men 
of all classes — the learned as well as the unlearned — will be 
likely to regard it as a positive evidence against the religion, 
that it professes to be calculated for mankind in general, and 
designed to claim their rational belief, while its defenders 
themselves confess that the object cannot be accomplished. 

To labour to prove a truth, is to imply the possibility of 
doubt, and to challenge enquiry; therefore an appeal to 
truth, as resting on evidence, is the characteristic of a true 
religion, which alone can satisfy doubts, or stand the test of 
enquiry. 

The kingdom of truth the Lord came to establish, is a 
kingdom whose subjects should have been admitted as such, 
in consequence of their being "of the truth;" that is, not 
mere adherents of truth by accident, but votaries of truth. 
"Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice." 

He only is "of the truth" who, with reverential love, is 
seeking, in candour and simplicity, to learn God's truth, and, 
in earnest self-devotion, to obey it at all seeming hazards ; 
after the example of Him who "came into the world to bear 
witness unto the truth." 



OBSTACLES TO THE ATTAINMENT OP TRUTH. 19 



SOME OBSTACLES TO THE ATTAINMENT OF TRUTH, AND TO 
ITS PROGRESS IN THE WORLD. 



I. Indifference about Truth. 

What is the Truth ? is the question to Tvhich all other 
questions should be postponed. 

All men wish to have truth on their side ; but few to be on 
the side of truth. 

Some men, from supposing themselves to have found truth, 
take for granted that it was for truth they were seeking. 

Men miss truth more often from their indifference about it, 
than from intellectual incapacity. 

Many a man adduces on some subjects puerile fallacies, 
that are, perhaps, in reality no more Jds own than the sound 
arguments he employs on others ; he has given an indolent, 
unthinking acquiescence to each, and has suifered his powers 
of thought to lie dormant, which, if he could be excited to 
exert, would be fully sufficient to enable him to distinguish 
the sound from the unsound. 

There is a heresy of Indifference to revealed religion which 
is the most deadly of all heresies. 

Some of the articles of belief, of the heresy of Indifference, 



20 OBSTACLES TO THE ATTAINMENT OF TRUTH, 

are too readily and generally received — "all religions are 
true, and all equally true," — "all religions profess to furnish 
revelations respecting the Deity and the world to come," — 
" all religions have their Priest and their Priestcraft," — " all 
religions teach piety towards some Divine Being, and incul- 
cate moral conduct." And this creed is wound up with — 

" For modes of faith, let senseless bigots fight ; 
He can't be wrong whose life is in the right." 

And yet, in every one of the points, in respect of which all 
religions will have been thus indiscriminately thrown together, 
the patient and diligent enquirer will perceive that Chris- 
tianity does, in fact, stand eminently distinguished from all 
the rest. It bears only that superj&cial and general resem- 
blance to them, Avhich a genuine coin does to its various 
counterfeits. 

The depreciation of Christianity by Indifferentlsm is a 
more insidious and less curable evil than infidelity itself. 
For he who denies the whole of it, but who yet acknowledges 
the importance, if true, of what he rejects, may, at least, be 
brought to attend to the arguments in favour of it : but far 
less corrigible is the error of him, who, confounding Chris- 
tianity with all the systems which human fraud or folly has 
devised, or, at best, regarding it as a mere authoritative con- 
firmation of Natural Religion, looks upon the whole system 
with indifference, as a thing needed, perhaps, for the vulgar, 
but which the educated and intelligent might very well have 
dispensed with, and about which they need not much concern 
themselves. 

The study of Natural Religion ought properly to follow, 
or at' least to accompany, not to precede, that of Revelation. 



AND TO ITS PROGKESS IN THE WORLD. 21 

The Gospel has exercised a powerful, though an unacknow- 
ledged, and, perhaps, an unperceived, mfluence, even on the 
minds of those who reject it; they have drunk at that stream 
of knowledge, which they cannot, or will not, trace up to the 
real source from which it flows. 

To dress up a system with the spoils of revelation, to call 
it Natural Religion, and then to make it a standard by which 
to interpret the declarations of Scripture, is, in fact, to cor- 
rect an original, from an incorrect and imperfect transcript. 

To attribute to Natural Religion what Revelation alone 
can furnish, is to confound Christianity with the various 
systems of philosophical speculation or popular superstition, 
in careless blindness to the s|)lendid characteristics which 
distinguish it from them all. The star which stands over the 
holy Infant at Bethlehem has no fellow in the firmament. 

If the Jews be justly condemned, who crucified our Lord 
"between two thieves" — thus "numbering with the trans- 
gressors" of the vilest kind, the only Man who never trans- 
gressed—it is awful to think what account those will have 'to 
render at the last day, who vilify His religion, by confounding 
it with the grossest systems of human imposture, not only in 
the very points in which the two are different, but in those 
points in which they are absolutely contrasted. 

The pursuit of religious truth is the noblest, as it is the 
most important pursuit, in which any human being can be 
engaged. 

He who either cares not to be a lover of truth, or takes for 



22 OBSTACLES TO THE ATTAINMENT OF TRUTH, 

granted that he is such, without taking any pains to acquire 
the habit, is not likely ever to acquire it. 

Men first make up their minds — and the smaller the mind 
the sooner made up — and then seek for reasons, and if they 
chance to stumble upon a good reason, of course they do not 
reject it. But though they are right, they are right only by 
chance. 

Man is naturally more desirous of a quiet and approving, 
than of a vigilant and tender conscience, more desirous of 
security than of safety. 

Many a man who is extravagantly imagining that he can 
purchase repose for his soul in a future life, is in reality seek- 
ing for the repose of his soul in this life. 

In the great day of judgment, each man will not only see 
his Judge, but he will also see himself, which none can do 
perfectly at present, and which few endeavour to do at all. 

Men are apt to overlook the possible high practical import- 
ance of thinking rightly on a point which has in itself no 
practical tendency. — The opinion so harmless, however ground- 
less, that in the resurrection, all the same particles of matter 
which belong to our bodies now, must be brought together 
and reunited, has left an opening for the cavils of irreligious 
scoffers. Yet the illustration which Paul employs is that of 
a seed sown, and this alone is sufficient to refute the error. 
For we raise from a seed, not the same thing that was sown, 
but a plant which is very different. " Thou so west not that 
which shall be, but bare grain," — that is, mere seed — "but 
God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him." 



AND TO ITS PROaRESS IN THE WORLD. 23 

According to the proverb, wMch Lord Bacon has some- 
•where alluded to, "Nettle roots sting not," the first entrance 
of some false principle, or of some usurped power, is gene- 
rally in reference to something, in itself, either harmless or 
else unimportant ; and when the root has once got possession 
of the soil, it will afterwards send up stronger and stronger 
shoots. 

To be blind to the unsoundness of a principle till it pro- 
duces actually all the ill effects that it can consistently lead 
to, is not to perceive which way the wind is blowing unless it 
blows a perfect gale. 

A self-evident and apparently insignificant truth, admitted 
under the guise of a truism, has not seldom been converted 
into a dogma of fearful importance. When the wooden horse 
has been introduced, it is found to contain armed men con- 
cealed within it. 

The simplest and most obvious truth, is worth setting 
forth, that it may clear away some of the fallacies, which, 
scattered at random, cause impediments in the enquirer's 
path to truth ; even as the wreaths of snow, tossed about for- 
tuitously by the blind fury of the winds, may form serious 
obstructions in the roads. 

Those who on each occasion watched the motions, and 
registered the times of occultation, of Jupiter's satellites, 
little thought, perhaps, themselves, what important results 
they were preparing the way for. Hence, Bacon urges us to 
pursue truth, without always requiring to perceive its practi- 
cal application. 

Men often speak contemptuously of over exactness — of 



24 DREAD OP THE PROGRESS OP TRUTH. 

attending to minute and subtle distinctions ; while these 
minute distinctions are exactly those which call for careful 
attention in all who would escape, or detect, error. It is for 
•want of attention to minute points, that houses are robbed 
and set on fire. Burglars do not, in general, come and bat- 
ter down the front door ; but climb in at some window Avhose 
fastenings have been neglected; and an incendiary, or a 
careless servant, does not kindle a tar-barrel in the middle 
of a room, but leaves a lighted turf, or a candle-snuff, in the 
thatch or in a heap of shavings. 

No truth should be deemed not worth maintaining, nor an 
unsound principle thought too insignificant to be worth re- 
futing, because no longer needed for establishing some par- 
ticular conclusion. The time when the need is not pressing, 
is the very time to provide ourselves with such firm-fixed and 
right principles as may avail in time of need, and to destroy 
the roots of those theoretical errors, which may be torpid, 
yet ready to vegetate as soon as the season is favourable to 
them. When the storm is in its fury, it may be too late to 
drop the anchor. 

It is not enough to believe what you maintain, you must 
maintain what you believe ; and maintain it, because you 
believe it. 



II. Dread op the PRoaRESS op Truth. 

To dread danger from the progress of any truth, physical, 
moral, or religious, is to manifest a want of faith in God's 
power, or, in His will to maintain His own cause. 



DREAD OF THE PROGEESS OF TRUTH. 25 

Falsehood, like the dry-rot, flourishes the more in propor- 
tion as air and light are excluded. 

Truths dangerous indeed ; Yes — and so are meat and 
drink ; but who will therefore resolve to perish with hunger ? 

Unless the people can be kept in total darkness, it is the 
wisest way for the advocates of truth to give them full light. 

Those are narrow prejudices which would set science and 
religion in array against each other, and the practical conse- 
quence, the making them indeed adverse, though easy to be 
foreseen, is often overlooked in practice. If the efforts, for- 
merly made by a bigoted hierarchy, to represent the culti- 
vation of astronomy as opposed to religion, had proved suc- 
cessful, and consequently no Christian had been an astronomer, 
the result produced by themselves, viz., that no astronomer 
would have been a Christian, would have been triumphantly 
appealed to in justification of their censures. 

In the Middle Ages, Grammar (" Gramarye") was regarded 
as a kind of magic art. 

Those who avow their dread of the pursuit of knowledge 
of any kind, as likely to be injurious to the cause of religion, 
forget that the acknowledgment of such a feeling, or even a 
bare suspicion of its existence, does more harm to that cause, 
than all the assaults of its adversaries. However sincere 
their own belief may, in fact, be, the impression will inevi- 
tably be excited, that it is not so ; that they secretly distrust 
the goodness of their cause ; and are desirous, from some 
sinister motive, of keeping up a system of delusion, by sup- 
pressing the free exercise of reason. For truth can never 
be at variance with truth ; discoveries in astronomy, for 
3 



26 DEEAD OF THE PROGRESS OF TRUTH. 

example, in chemistry, or in geology, may indeed be totally 
unconnected •with religious truths, but can never contradict 
them. To this it is replied, that it is not truth, but specious 
falsehood, not real, but pretended discoveries that are 
dreaded. But this falsehood should be refuted, and these 
alleged discoveries tested, by an appeal to such data as our 
natural powers of reason supply ; not by an appeal to the 
Scriptures save as an ancient book ; not in reference to their 
sacred character ; in short, not as Scripture. We ought to 
employ Scripture for its ovf^n purpose, which is to reveal to 
us religious and moral truths. It is for us to " behave our- 
selves valiantly for our country and for the cities of our 
God," instead of bringing the ark of God into the field of 
battle to fight for us. 

The truths of Religion ought not to be rested on any 
decision respecting questions belonging to the Natural-phi- 
losopher, or the Metaphysician ; nor our hopes in God's 
promises be mixed up with debates about Extension, and 
Gravitation, and Form. 

It is often said, that though it may be well for learned 
and skilful Divines to have the objections to Christianity 
placed before them, yet that it is better not to notice objec- 
tions generally, for fear of alarming and unsettling the 
minds of plain unlearned people, who had, probably, never 
heard of any thing of the kind. Now, many persons, who 
have never heard any thing distinct on the subject, have 
heard, and are made uneasy by, vague reports and obscure 
rumours of objections, made by some supposed learned men, 
who have proceeded on ^^ rational" grounds, without knowing 
distinctly what they are ; when, perhaps, if these objections 
were clearly stated to them, they are qualified, by their own 



DREAD OF THE PROGRESS OF TRUTH. 27 

plain sense, to perceive how irrational they are. Suppose 
you were startled in a dark night, by something that looked 
like a spectre in a winding-sheet, would not he who should 
bring a lantern, and show you that it was nothing but a white 
cloth hanging on a bush, give you far better encouragement, 
than he who merely exhorted you to " look another way, keep 
up your heart, whistle and pass on." 

Those who censure the endeavours to enlighten the adher- 
ents of some erroneous Churches, on the ground, that many 
of them have thence become atheists, and many, fanatics, 
forget that this is a probable and natural result, of the per- 
nicious effects upon the mind, of any system of blind, unin- 
quiring, acquiescence, and that therefore to censure the 
casting out of that evil spirit, which such a system is, would 
be to condemn the cure of the man possessed with a demon, 
who, as might have been expected, cruelly rent and mangled 
the victim, as it came out of him, and left him half dead at 
its departure. 

It is well known that the great doctrines of Justification 
by faith, and of Spiritual Influence, have been often and 
grievously perverted. Yet, this perversion is no argument 
for neglect of them ; not only, because neglect of any doc- 
trine, is no less an evil than the abuse of it, but, because the 
vei-y best security against that abuse, is to preach the doc- 
trine, in its genuine and uncorrupted form. In the vast 
Savannahs of America, travellers are often, it is said, 
threatened with destruction from fires, which having been 
kindled, by some accident, among the luxuriant but sun- 
scorched vegetation, spread before the wind, with a rapidity 
which precludes all hope of escape by flight. Their only re- 
source, when thus pursued by the conflagration, is to kindle 



28 BIAS OF JUDGMENT. 

the grass before tliem ; and thus leave the flame which 
follows them no fuel to sustain it. 

We are told in The Spectator, that when Sir Eoger de 
Coverley first came to his estate, the good knight found three 
parts of his house altogether useless. The best room had 
the reputation of being haunted ; noises had been heard in 
another ; and his mother had had several chambers shut up, 
in which, deaths, or other disagreeable events, had occurred. 
In this manner, his habitation was reduced to so small a 
compass, that he found himself almost shut out of his own 
house. This story presents itself to my mind, when I see 
men, without sufficient reason, abandoning part of their right- 
ful possession of Christian doctrine ; and confining them- 
selves to a narrow range of Scripture truth. 

There may be danger attendant on every truth, since, 
there is none that may not be perverted by some, or, that 
may not give offence to others ; but, in the case of any- 
thing which plainly appears to be truth, every danger must 
be braved. We must maintain the truth as we have received 
it, and trust to Him who is "the Truth" to prosper and de- 
fend it. 



III. Bias of Judgment. 

Indifference of the will, and indifi"erence of the judg- 
ment, are two very distinct things that are often confounded. 

To wish to find truth on one side rather than the other, is 
natural and often wise; but to think that true which we 



BIAS OF JUDGMENT. 29 

■wish, and merely because we wish it, is always an undeniable 
folly. 

The confusion in some men's minds between truth and 
reality — between the report of a thing which might be either 
true or false, and the thing reported, which either is, or is 
not, is exhibited in the way in which men believe or dis- 
believe, not with a view to the truth, or falsity of what is 
said, but according as it is favourable or unfavourable to 
their wishes, — " Prophesy unto us smooth things ; prophesy 
unto us deceits." A similar confusion makes men dislike the 
messenger of evil, as if he brought upon them the evil, in- 
stead of merely bringing them the knowledge of it. 

As any one may bring himself to believe almost anything 
that he is inclined to believe, it makes all the difference 
whether we hegin or end with the enquiry, " What is truth ?" 

There should be an endeavor to preserve the indifference 
of the judgment, even in cases where the will cannot, and 
should not, be indifferent. 

The judgment is like a pair of scales, and evidences like 
the weights ; but the will holds the balances in its hand ; 
and even a slight jerk will be sufficient, in many cases, to 
make the lighter scale appear the heavier. 

Men are too apt to ask, as the first question, not how far 
each doctrine is agreeable to Scripture, but to themselves ; 
not whether it is conformable to God's will, but to their own. 

When comparing opinions or practices with the standard 
of God's word, we must beware, lest we suffer these opinions 



30 BIAS OF JUDGMENT. 

or practices to tend the rule hj TvliicL. they are to be 
measured. 

Some persons follow the dictates of their conscience, only 
in the same sense in which a coachman paay be said to fol- 
low the horses he is driving. 

It makes all the difference, whether we pursue a certain 
course because we judge it right ; or judge it to be right 
heemise we pursue it. 

There are two objects which he who seeks is almost sure 
to find — the one is, the knowledge of what he ought to do — 
the other, an excuse for what he is inclined to do. 

Inclination, when suffered to bias the judgment in embrac- 
ing conclusions, acts like the magnet said to have been once 
secretly placed near a ship's compass by a traitor, who, pur^ 
posing to deliver the crew into the enemy's hands, thus made 
all their diligence and skill only serve to further them in the 
wrong course. 

There is no absurdity so gross which men will not readily 
admit, if it appears to favour a conclusion of which they 
are already convinced. Even a candid and sensible man, is 
not unlikely to be misled by this, to use arguments which 
would never have convinced himself, had he not been con- 
vinced before ; and are not likely to convince others, but 
rather (by the operation of the converse fallacy) to confirm 
in their dissent those who before disagreed with him. 

It is not only the outward profession, but the real convic- 
tions 'of the judgment, that are liable to be biassed by the 



BIAS OF JUDGMENT. 31 

influence of interest, party spirit, or other improper motives. 
"A gift," as tlie Scriptures express it, " blinds tlie eyes." 
Sincerity, in this sense, accordingly — (not that kind which 
consists in the exercise of an unbiassed judgment, earnestly 
and sincerely endeavouring to ascertain what is true, and 
which is justly regarded as so commendable a quality that 
many and great errors are reckoned pardonable, in propor- 
tion as a man possesses it ;) but sincerity in the sense of un- 
feigned persuasion that wrong is right, and truth falsehood — 
is described by the great moralist of antiquity as the last 
stage of corruption. 

According to the Hindoo Law, the penalty denounced 
against a particular crime is remitted only in case of the in- 
ducement to its commission being the present of an elephant ; 
that being considered a douceur too magnificent for any one 
to be expected to refuse. Now, in Europe, though an actual 
elephant is not the very thing that offers the strongest temp- 
tation, there is in most people's conscience something analo- 
gous to it, and dijBferent things are "elephants" to different 
people. It is well for every man to be on the look-out, each 
for his own " elephant." 

When people have resolved to shut their eyes, or to look 
only on one side, it is of little consequence how good their 
eyes may be. 

Men make up their minds before-hand, and assume, with 
regard to any reasons brought before them, the office, not of 
a judge, but of an advocate, who aims at drawing out of each 
witness, whatever he can that favours his own side, and 
cushioning all that makes against him. Thus many a reader 
of the Bible reads it through coloured glasses. 



32 BIAS OF JUDGMENT. 

The generality of men are not so much accustomed to 
pursue this or that course, in consequence of their previous 
conviction that it is right, as to believe that it is right, 
because they have been accustomed to pursue it. 

It is one thing to pray that we may learn what is right ; 
and another thing to pray that we may Jind ourselves in the 
right. 

The more easy of belief any one is, in respect of what 
falls in with his wishes or preconceived notions, the harder 
of belief he will be, of anything that opposes them : — there- 
fore the testimony of the early disciples of Jesus is even the 
stronger from their prejudices all running counter to their 
testimony. 

If men will consult the Scriptures, as Balaam enquired of 
God, with a secret bias ; not acquiescing at once in the 
Divine decision but trying once more " what the Lord will 
say," they will, like him, be indulged in finding something 
more conformable to their sinful wish ; even as Balaam, on 
his second application, received permission to " go with the 
men," and yet "the Lord's anger was kindled against him 
because he went." 

Into whatever opinions or conduct men are led by any 
human propensities, they seek to defend and justify them by 
the best arguments they can frame ; and then, assign (as they 
often do in perfect sincerity) these arguments as the cause 
of their adopting such notions, whereas they are in reality 
the effect. Thus the chance (however small it may be) of 
rectifying their errors, is diminished. Foi', if these be in re- 
ality traceable to some deep-seated principle of our nature, 



BIAS OF JUDGMENT. 33 

as soon as one false foundation on •which they have been 
placed is removed, another "vrill be substituted ; as soon as one 
theory is proved untenable, a new one will be devised in its 
place. Thus, arguments, even the strongest and the clearest, 
will usually prove too "weak to overthrow the " Idols of the 
Race" (idola tribus) as Bacon calls them: — the error's 
springing out of man's nature. 

It is only through the enlightening and supporting grace 
of the Holy Spirit, that the Scriptures themselves can be 
consulted with advantage. 

While carefully guarding against the judgment being 
biassed by inclination, it should not be forgotten that it is a 
great mistake, and one that leads to important practical 
error, to assume that all people believe what they wish for. 
It is quite as often the reverse : thus, we find men some- 
times "believing not for joy" something which they feel a 
strong desire for ; and again, sometimes tormented with 
groundless alarms of something which they much dread ; 
with excessive doubt in cases where their wishes are strong, 
— and morbid distrust of evidence which they are especially 
anxious to find conclusive. The proverbial expression of 
"too good news to be true," bears witness to the existence 
of this feeling. 

Some writers disparage the judgment of those who have 
been accustomed to study and to teach the Christian Reli- 
gion, and who derive hope and satisfaction from it, on the 
ground that they must wish to find it true ; and yet the very 
same writers pass by the strong testimony, afibrded on the 
same principle, by the multitudes who admit the truth of 



34 BIAS OP JUDGMENT. 

Christianity, thougli they have every reason to wish it untrue 
— as being to them a source of uneasiness and dismay. 

A conclusion may be safely adopted, though in accordance 
with inclination, provided it be not founded upon it. 

The proper office of candour is to prepare the mind, not, 
for the rejection of all evidence, but for the right reception 
of evidence ; not to be a substitute for reasons, but, to enable 
us fairly to weigh the reasons on both sides. To say other- 
wise is, in fact, to argue, that since just weights alone, with- 
out a just balance, will avail nothing, therefore, we have 
only to take care of the scales, and let the weights take care 
of themselves. 

Declamations are current in the present day against the 
iniquity of giving a bias to the minds of young persons, by 
teaching them our own interpretation of the sacred volume, 
instead of leaving them to investigate for themselves ; that 
is, against endeavoring to place them in the same situation 
with those to whom those very Scriptures were written ; 
instead of leaving them to struggle with difficulties which the 
Scriptures no where contemplate nor provide against. The 
maintainors of such a principle would do well to consider, 
whether it would not, if consistently pursued, prove too 
much. Do you not, it might be asked, bias the minds of 
children by putting into their hands the Scriptures them- 
selves, as the infallible word of God ? If you are convinced 
that they are so, you must be sure that they will stand the 
test of unprejudiced enquiry. Are you not, at least, bound 
in fairness to teach them at the same time, the systems of 
ancient mythology, the doctrines of the Koran, and those of 
modern philosophers, that they may freely choose amongst 



AVERSION TO DOUBT. 35 

all ? Let any one who is disposed to deride the absurdity 
of such a proposal, consider whether there is any objection 
to it, which -would not equally lie against the exclusion of 
systematic religious instruction, or indeed systematic training 
in any science or art. It would follow from this principle, 
that no physician should be trusted who is not utterly indif- 
ferent whether his patient recovers or dies, and wholly free 
from any favourable hope from the mode of treatment pur- 
sued. 

The more awfully important any question is, the greater 
is the call for a rigid investigation of what may be urged on 
both sides ; that the decision may be made on sound, rational, 
and Scriptural grounds, and not according to the dictates of 
excited feelings and imagination. 



IV. Aversion to Doubt, and unnecessary Delay in 
Decision. 

An aversion to doubt — a dislike of having the judgment 
kept in suspense, combined with indolence in investigation, 
induces the great mass of mankind to make up their minds 
on a variety of points, not one of which they have been 
enabled thoroughly to examine. 

Men, in thinking only of what they are running from, for- 
get what they are running towards. 

He who does not in all cases prefer doubt to the reception 
of falsehood, or to the admission of any conclusion on insuffi- 



36 AVERSIOISr TO DOUBT, AND 

cient evidence, is no lover of truth, nor in the right way to 
attain it in any point. 

There is no right faith in believing what is true, unless we 
believe it because it is true. 

Men grow impatient at the doubts and difficulties which 
beset the operations of the understanding. But if errors 
spring from its imperfection, is it not a strange remedy to 
quicken its too hurried pace, and limit its too narrow powers ? 
Would any choose a clerk in money matters, who, puzzled 
by a long and intricate calculation, and uncertain, after all 
his care, of having escaped error, should boldly efface the 
sum total, and put down such a result as ought in his opinion 
to be correct ? Such is the theory and practice of what is 
sadly miscalled Faith in many minds. Like Jack (in Swift's 
profane pasquinade) they have mused so long on the imper- 
fections of eye-sight and the mischief of optical illusions, that 
they resolve to shut their eyes entirely, or, at least, never to 
venture out in daylight. 

To bid a man, when in doubt between two opposing argu- 
ments, to act as if certain, is often as wise as it is necessary ; 
but to say to a man " Because you are in doubt, believe 
without any doubt, for this is safest for you," must always 
be absurd. Yet the pretence of the greatest safety to be 
found in a Church demanding implicit and undoubting belief 
in all it teaches, even though it were to teach that black is 
white, is what catches unthinking persons more than anything 
else. 

Men may succeed in saving themselves from actual doubt, 
without delivering themselves from reasons for doubt. 



UNNECESSARY DELAY IN DECISION. 37 

To take refuge from the morbid dread of uncertainty in 
an authority, while wilfully blind to its doubtfulness, is, to 
save, as it were, the ship from being driven about, at the 
mercy of winds and currents, by casting anchor on an object 
which is itself floating. 

To reject one side of a question on perceiving that it in- 
volves groat diflficulties, and to embrace the other side of the 
alternative, without staying to examine whether there are 
more or fewer on that other side, is as if a traveller, when he 
had the choice of two roads, should, immediately oq perceiv- 
ing that there are impediments on the one, decide on taking 
the other, before he had ascertained whether it were even 
passable. 

It is a common practice to decide at once against any 
measure that may appear in itself objectionable, in cases 
where there is, perhaps, nothing but a choice of difficulties 
before us ; as when the throwing, for example, of a valuable 
cargo in to the sea, is the only mode left of saving the ship. 

A choice of difficulties seems a necessary condition of 
human affairs. For it perpetually happens, in every depart- 
ment of life, that there will be objections, greater or less, to 
each of any possible courses before us. And yet, many in- 
telligent persons sit down quite satisfied that they have 
proved their point when they have ^hown the grave objections 
to one course, without at all noticing those that lie against 
all the others ; and without perceiving that they are in the 
condition alluded to in the Roman proverb, '"'■ Lwpum auribus 
teneo ;" when it is difficult and hazardous to keep one's hold, 
and eminently hazardous to let it go. 

Suspension of judgment, so often urged, as long as there 
4 



do AVERSION TO DOUBT, AND 

are reasons on both sides, is practically, since there always 
will be reasons on both sides, the very same thing as a de- 
cision in favour of the existing state of things. "Not to re- 
solve is to resolve." Happy it is for mankind, that, in many 
of the most momentous concerns of life, their decision is 
generally formed for them, by external circumstances ; 
which thus saves them, not only from the perplexity of doubt 
and the danger of delay, but also from the pain of regret ; 
since we acquiesce much more cheerfully in that which is 
unavoidable. 

The main, and almost the universal, fallacy of Anti- 
christians is, in showing that there are objections against 
Christianity, and thence inferring that it should be rejected ; 
when that which ought to have been proved is, that there are 
more or stronger objections against the receiving than the re- 
jecting of it. At the first announcement of the Gospel, when 
Jesus of Nazareth claimed to be the promised Deliverer, in 
whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed, the burden 
of proof lay with Him. No one could be fairly called on to 
admit His pretensions, till He showed cause for believing in 
Him. If " He had not done among them the works which none 
other man did, they had not had sin." Now the case is re- 
versed, and the religion exists, that is the phenomenon ; 
those who will not allow it to have come from God, are bound 
to solve it on some other hypothesis less open to objections. 
Infidels, when supposing it to have been a human contriv- 
ance, not established by miracles, are bound to give an ex- 
planation of the still greater miracle — its having arisen and 
prevailed as it did, in defiance of all opposition — forcing men 
of all ranks and of all nations to disown the gods of their 
ancestors, and to adore a Jewish peasant, who had been cut 
off by the most ignominious death. This explanation they 



UNNECESSARY DELAY IN DECISION. W 

have never given, tliough thej have had 1800 years to try ; 
and thus they have tacitly confessed, that no hypothesis can 
be devised which will not be open to greater objections than 
lie against Christianity. 

There may be objections which none can answer, and 
others which the unlearned cannot, of themselves, be ex- 
pected at once to answer, against conclusions which, yet, 
may be fairly established by a preponderance of evidence ; 
by positive proofs that have more force than the objections, 
even if left unanswered. "There are objections," said Dr. 
Johnson, " against a plenum, and objections against a va- 
cuum ; but one of them must be true." 

Disbelieving is believing ; since to disbelieve any assertion 
is to believe its contradictory ; and whoever does this on 
slight grounds is both credulous and incredulous ; these 
being, in fact, one and the same habit of mind. This, 
though self-evident, is frequently lost sight of, owing to the 
employing in reference to the Christian religion the words, 
"Believer and unbeliever;" whence, unthinking persons are 
led to take for granted, that the rejection of Christianity 
implies less easy belief than its reception. Whereas, in re- 
ality, the infidel shows greater credulity than the Christian. 
The Christian believes that miracles took place in the setting 
up of Christianity, but assigns a sufficient cause for those 
wonderful events — namely, the Almighty power of God ; and 
a sufiicient reason for His exertion of that power — namely, 
to attest a divine Revelation. They, on the contrary, sup- 
pose that all the best established law^s of the human mind 
were violated, and that men, in this one case, acted differ- 
ently from the way in which they act in every other, while 
yet they are unable to assign any probable cause, or any 



40 AVERSION TO DOUBT, AND 

specious reason for such an astounding miracle. And no one 
should make a boast of his "incredulity" in disbelieving 
something that is very strange, while he is believing, as the 
only alternative, something incomparably more strange. 

Divine Providence seems to have designed that men should 
not be forced into belief of Revelation, by evidence which, 
like that of geometrical demonstration, should leave no dis- 
tinction between the well-disposed and the ill-diposed. 

Three great requisites for decision are within the reach of 
ordinary men, as well as of the most learned and able. (1.) 
A sincere desire to attain Truth in order to regulate opinions 
and conduct by it alone ; (2.) pure moral principle ; and (3.) 
attentive study and calm enquiry. Do not be in a hurry to 
form an opinion, but do not unnecessarily put it off. Do not 
decide without inquiry, but do not, in order to avoid decid- 
ing, omit enquiry. 

Some men see no medium between a claim to infallibility 
on the one hand, and universal hesitation — absolute scepti- 
cism — on the other. An appeal to the common sense which 
every man exercises on all hut religious subjects, might be 
sufficient to prove, not only the absurdity of this reasoning, 
but their own conviction of its absurdity. Sensible men, 
every day, decide questions in Medicine, in Agriculture, in 
Navigation, with sufficient confidence for all practical pur- 
poses, yet without holding themselves to be infallible. 

A confident expectation that no argument will be adduced 
that will change our opinions, is very different from a resolu- 
tion that none ever sliall We may print but not stereotype 
our opinions. 



UNNECESSARY DELAY IN DECISION. 41 

He that is not open to conviction, is not qualified for dis- 
cussion. 

We must always think our opinions are right; but not 
think our opinions are right always. 

Misgive that you may not mistake. 

Though not always called upon to condemn ourselves, it is 
always safe to suspect ourselves. 

As a consciousness of peccability in moral conduct leads 
us to utter with sincerity the words, " who can tell how oft 
he ofiendeth ? Oh ! cleanse Thou me from my secret faults," 
— the consciousness of peccability in judgment should make 
us equally ready to add, "who can tell how oft he mis- 
taketh?" 

* To examine and re-examine — to reason and reflect — to 
hesitate and decide with caution — to be always open to 
evidence, — and to acknowledge that after all we are liable to 
error ; — all this is unacceptable to the human mind — both to 
its diffidence and to its pride ; — to its indolence, its dread of 
anxious cares — and to its love of self-satisfied and confident 
repose. 

As the skilful and cautious navigator incurs no risk from 
hoping that the reckoning he carefully keeps will prove cor- 
rect, so long as he never so far trusts to it as not to " keep 
a look-out," and to "take an observation" when opportunity 
offers ; so, the earnest and diligent seeker after Truth who 
acts on his convictions as if he were certain of their being 

correct, and examines and re-examines the grounds of them,' 
4* 



42 SUPPOSED HAPPY MEDIUM. 

as if he suspected them of being erroneous, need not fear, 
but that in proportion as he is watchfully and prayerfully on 
his guard against the unseen current of passions and pre- 
judices which is ever tending to drive him out of the right 
course, in the same degree will he succeed in attaining all 
necessary religious truths. For this self-distrust, this per- 
petual care, and diligent watchfulness, and openness to con- 
viction, are so far from necessarily implying a state of pain- 
ful and unceasing doubt, that as they furnish the best safe- 
guard against error, so they afford the best grounds for a 
cheering hope of having attained truth. For, as long as the 
lover of Truth exercises this caution, — so long as he is open 
to enquiry and incessantly ready to try every religious ques- 
tion by Scripture and by reason, — so long he will have been 
making that use of all his advantages, natural and super- 
natural, which Divine wisdom evidently designed : so long, 
he will have been doing his utmost to conform to the will of 
Grod ; and so long, consequently, he shall have the better 
reason for cherishing an humble hope that He, " the Spirit 
of Truth," is, and will be, with him, to enlighten his under- 
standing, to guide his conduct, and to lead him onwards to 
that state in which Faith shall be succeeded by sight, and 
Hope, by enjoyment. 



V. Desire of a Supposed Happy Medium. 

It is a truism, but one often practically forgotten, that 
there is no medium between truth and falsehood. 

The golden mean, and avoiding of extremes, upon which 
some pride themselves may be but an attempt to stop short 



SUPPOSED HAPPY MEDIUM. 43 

between the premises and the conclusion ; a medium between 
the abandonment of a false principle and the adoption of all 
its legitimate consequences. 

The real medium of rectitude is not to be attained by 
geometrical measurement. The varieties of human error 
have no power to fix the exact place of truth. On the con- 
trary, it happens in respect of religion as well as in all other 
subjects, that each one of two parties will maintain some 
things that are perfectly true and right, and others that are 
wholly wrong and mischievous ; and that, in other points 
again, the one party or the other, will be much the more 
remote from the truth. So that any one who studies to keep 
himself in every point just half-way between two contending 
parties, will probably be as often in the wrong as either of 
them. 

The vulgar are apt to conclude that where a great deal is 
said, something must be true ; and adopting that lazy con- 
trivance for saving the trouble of thinking, splitting the dif- 
ference, imagine they show a laudable caution in believing 
only part of what is said. This is to be as simple as the 
clown who thinks he has bought a great bargain of a Jew, 
because he has beat down the price from a guinea to a crown 
for some article that is not really worth a groat. 

One may often hear it observed that there is a great deal 
of truth in what such a one has said : i. e., perhaps it is all 
true except one esssential point. 

The weak, the uncandid, and the unthinking often con- 
gratulate themselves on having attained that happy medium 
between opposite extremes in which, they have been told, 



44 THE LOVE OF SYSTEM. 

wisdom consists ; while tliej have only attained the mimic 
wisdom of sliding alternately into each extreme ; and instead 
of being led by neither party, are actually being led by both. 
A man whose orbit is really independent, will find it coincide 
in what astronomers call Nodes — sometimes with one, and 
sometimes with another orbit. 



VI. The Love of System. 

There is no more common error in many departments of 
study, and especially in Theology, than the prevalence of a 
love of system over the love of truth. Men are often so much 
captivated by the aspect of what seems to them a regular, 
beautiful, and well-connected theory, as to adopt it hastily, 
without enquiring in the outset how far it is conformable to 
facts, or to Scriptural authority ; and thus, often on one or 
two passages of Scripture, have built up an ingenious and 
consistent scheme, of which the far greater part is a tissue 
of their own reasonings and conjectures. 

The love of system leads to a confounding of the essential 
and important, with what is, in reality, totally unconnected 
with it. The whole system of faith of some, may be compared 
to some of the ancient compound medicines, of great efficacy 
and value, though cumbered with several drugs that are 
utterly inert. Many practitioners, unskilled in analysis, 
cannot conceive but that the success with which the compound 
is often administered, is a proof of the efficacy of each 
ingredient, and of the absurdity of thinking to separate them. 



THE LOVE OF SYSTEM. 45 

"The mode in whicli theological knowledge is too commonly 
taught, is from uninspired writers, ayIio interiveave indeed, in 
their works much of Scriptui'c, but make this rather a com- 
mentary on their system, than the basis and substratum on 
which they are to comment. They are apt to make a human 
system the ivarp instead of the woof ; whereas the proper 
course would be to reverse that procedure — to take Scripture 
as the warp, and interweave their own remarks, explanations 
and applications. 

The more the Scriptures are viewed in the light of a regu- 
larly formed philosophic system, the greater will be the dis- 
position to find in them a regular technical vocabulary ; for 
any system appears the more complete and distinct from all 
others, when provided with a distinct, regular, technical 
phraseology, like a corporate body, with its coat of arms and 
motto. 

The adhering too closely to any fixed set of expressions, 
in religious discussions, has a tendency to deaden men's at- 
tention to the tilings signified ; and, by leading them to mis- 
take words for things, to lay the foundation of erroneous 
theories. The Sacred Writers aimed at no philosophical re- 
gularity of language, and the terms used by them are to be 
understood, not according to a precise, scientific definition, 
but each with reference to the context of the place where it 
is found. 

The technical terms of the various systems of philosophi- 
cal theology, are more numerous than those of almost any 
science, and were in many instances taken from the sacred 
writers — taken from them, in every sense of the jihrase ; 
since hardly any theologian confined himself to their use of 



46 THE LOVE OF SYSTEM. 

the terms. The materials indeed, are the stones of the 
Temple : but the building constructed with them is a fabric 
of human contrivance. 

A regular compact system of theology, professedly com- 
piled from Scripture, tends to foster that neglect of the study 
of Scripture, that averseness to labour in the investigation 
of truth, — that indolent, unenquiring acquiescence in what is 
ready prepared for acceptance in the lump, — to which man 
is by nature so much disposed ; and which the structure of 
the Christian Scriptures seems to have been expressly de- 
signed to guard against, by requiring that one passage 
should be compared with another, and instruction elicited 
from scattered, oblique, and incidental references to various 
doctrines. 

The arguments and systems which have been reared by 
words mistaken for things, remind one of the fog-banks, 
which, at sea, so often delude the anxious mariner; he 
fancies himself within view of new coasts with promontories^ 
and bays, and mountains distinctly discernible ; but a nearer 
approach, and a more steady observation, prove the whole to 
be but an unsubstantial vapour, ready to melt away into air, 
and vanish for ever. 

The lover of Truth without any bias in favour of any 
theory, however ingenious and consistent, must "prove all 
things and hold fast that which is good ;" — and must admit 
no conclusion which is not itself, as well as the premises it is . 
drawn from, agreeable to the Word of God. " Sir," (said 
one of the most eminent of the Eeformers) " I dare speak 
no further, yea, almost none otherwise than as the Scripture 
doth 'as it were lead me by the hand." 



DREAD OF INCONSISTENCY. 47 



VII. Dread of the Character of Inconsistency. 

The dread of Inconsistency must never be suffered to 
swallow up the dread of error. 

It is mere idle declamation about consistency, to represent 
it as a disgrace to a man to confess himself wiser to-day 
than yesterday. There is no inconsistency at all in declaring 
that we have seen reason to alter our opinion. The term 
should be confined to a man's holding, expressly or impliedly, 
contrary opinions at the same time, or, as the phrase is, 
"looking one way and rowing another." 

A man is often charged with inconsistency for accommo- 
dating his judgment or his conduct to the circumstances 
before him, as the mariner sets his sails to the wind ; though 
in many instances the inconsistency would be in the opposite 
proceeding, — in not shifting the sails when the wind changes. 

As every man, who is not infallible, is liable to some 
errors, he virtually lays claim to infallibility, who prides 
himself on his consistency, on the ground of resolving never 
to change his opinions or plans ; unless, indeed, he qualifies 
that claim by proclaiming himself either too dull to detect 
his mistakes, or too obstinate to own them. 

Many a man is censured as inconsistent, whom it would be 
more proper to characterize as fickle and unsteady. 

It is much easier to boast of consistency than to preserve 
it. For as in the dark, or in a fog, adverse troops may take 
post near each other without mutual recognition, and conse- 



48 DREAD OF INCONSISTENCY. 

quently without contest, but as soon as daylight comes the 
weaker gives place to the stronger ; so, in a misty and dark- 
ened mind, the most incompatible opinions may exist together 
without any perception of their discrepancy, till the under- 
standing becomes sufficiently enlightened to enable the man 
to reject the less reasonable opinions, and retain the op- 
posites. 

To censure a man as inconsistent when he alters his course 
of proceeding, his language, his opinions, &c., in conformity 
with a change of circumstances, is to censure him for that 
which must be continually practised by every one who is not 
insane ; — to censure him for changing his mind on finding 
himself mistaken, though circumstances remain the same, is 
to censure him for what ought to be practised by every one 
who is not infallible ; — and to censure him for holding con- 
trary opinions at the same time, though this, — and this only 
— may strictly and properly be called inconsistency, and 
ought sedulously to be avoided, is to misapply the censure, 
which would be better directed, not against the inconsistency 
of his notions with each other, but for the erroneousness of 
those which are erroneous. The consistency with each other, 
of opinions that are all wrong, is far enough from improving 
the case. 

As no one should be censured for Inconsistency, so no one 
should be praised for Consistency ; because where there is 
ground for either censure or praise, some better reason for it 
may always be assigned. 

The maintaing of Consistency must always be a bad rea- 
son to give for any act or opinion : if a principle or measure 
is i^ight, that surely is reason enough for supporting it ; if 



SUPPRESSION OF THE EXERCISE OF REASON. 49 

wrong, surely the being in tlie wrong yesterday is a bad rea- 
son for being wrong to-day. 



VIIL Suppression of the Exercise of Reason. 

As the Telescope is not a substitute for, but an aid to, our 
sight; so. Revelation is not designed to supersede the use 
of reason, but to supply its deficiencies. 

It is the characteristic of Truth to bear discussion. 

Those who deprecate the asking or giving a reason for 
their faith, must not wonder if it be supposed that they have 
a faith for Avhich there is no reason. 

If a man once comes to doubt of what he had been ac- 
customed to take for granted, he will reject it. 

Unless reason be employed in ascertaining what doctrines 
are revealed, humility cannot be exercised in acquiescing in 
them. 

Those who, in accordance with the apostolic injunction, are 
"ready to give a reason of the faith that is in them," will 
be also ready to hear reason. 

There is a kind of believer in religion, who wishes to be- 
lieve, from a conviction that religion is a desirable sentiment 
to cherish ; and resolves never to enquire whether it is true, 
from a suspicion that the enquiry might prove fatal. 
5 



60 SUPPRESSION OF THE EXERCISE OF REASON. 

Many people are led into the error of fancying that an 
irrational faith is even firmer than a rational one, by mistak- 
ing for a firm belief, a firm resolution of the will to believe. 
They seem to imagine that faith can be made firm only by a 
sort of brute force upon the understanding, and by brow- 
beating, as it were, their own minds, and those of others, 
into implicit submission. Now you never see traces of this 
kind of violence in the case of other truths which men really 
believe most firmly. You never hear a man protesting with 
great vehemence, that he is convinced that the angles of a 
triangle are equal to two right angles, or that the earth is 
round like a ball, and not flat, like a platter ; and denouncing 
all who cannot see the proof. Good proof satisfies the mind 
of itself, and excludes reasonable doubt without any violent 
effort. When you are sure that the door is strong enough to 
keep out the intruder, you sit quietly by your fireside, and 
let him kick his heels against it till he is tired. But if you 
rushed over and clapped your back and shoulders to the bolt, 
that would imply that the door is really weak, or, at least 
that your faith in it is weak ; — that is, that you had not full 
confidence in its strength. 

A clear or faint apprehension of the subject matter, and a 
clear or faint apprehension of the evidence of it, are two 
things totally different and entirely unconnected, yet often 
confounded in what pertains to religion, though never, by 
any one of ordinary good sense, in any subject where religion 
is not concerned. For instance, — there is, I suppose, no one 
who seriously doubts the existence of something which we 
call soul — or mind — be it substance or attribute, material or 
immaterial — and of the mutual connexion between it and the 
body. Yet how very faint and imperfect a notion it is that 
we can form of it, and of many of its phenomena that are of 



SUPPRESSION OF THE EXERCISE OP REASON. 51 

daily occurrence ! The partial suspension of mental and 
bodily functions during sleep, — the effects of opium and other 
drugs on both body and mind, — the influence, exercised by 
volition, and by various mental emotions, on the muscles, 
and on other parts of the bodily frame, — and many other of 
these phenomena, have exercised for ages the ingenuity of 
the ablest men, to find even any approximation towards but 
an imperfect explanation of them. Yet the evidence on which 
we believe in the reality of these, and of many other things 
no less dimly and partially understood, is perfect. — On the 
other hand, the characters, transactions, &c., represented by 
dramatic writers, or described by historians, are often as 
clearly intelligible as it is possible for anything to be ; yet 
from the total want of evidence, or from the want of clear 
and decisive evidence, as to their reality, we regard them as 
either entire fictions, or mixtures of fable and truth, or as 
more or less likely to have actually existed. The character 
and conduct of Lear, for instance, or Othello, or Hamlet, or 
Macbeth, are perfectly intelligible ; though it is very doubt- 
ful how far the tales which suggested to Shakespeare the 
most of his dramas had any foundation in fact, or were 
originally fictitious. Many, again, of the orations recorded 
by the ancient Greek and Roman historians, are as easily and 
plainly to be understood as any that are reported in our 
own times ; but in what degree each of these is a faithful 
record of what was actually spoken, is a point on which we 
have, in some cases, a slight and imperfect evidence ; and in 
others, none that deserves the name. — Now, Religion does 
not, in this respect, really differ from other subjects. Ac- 
cordingly, we find that the evidence for the Christian religion 
was perfect and distinct, though its character was imperfectly 
understood by those to whom it was first preached ; and that, 
dim, and indistinct, and imperfect, as were still their notions 



52 SUPPRESSION OF THE EXERCISE OF REASON. 

(as to a great degree ours must also be) concerning " the Son 
of God," it was no indistinct or imperfect evidence on which 
they believed that He was so ; while, on the other hand, the 
character and pretensions of the false Christs, who afterwards 
arose, were readily understood ; but were supported by no 
evidence that could satisfy an unprejudiced mind, bent on 
the attainment of truth. 

The representing all appeal to reason, as useless in cases 
where the argumentative faculty is not alone sufficient, is like 
denying the utility of light, because it will not enable a man 
to see, whose eyes are not in a state to perform their func- 
tions. 

To decline beginning at all, because we must begin in 
imperfection, is to say, that since veteran soldiers only are 
well fitted to perform their part, therefore, none but veterans 
should be brought into the field. 

Our indistinct conceptions of a truth, affect not the reality 
of its existence, any more than things, because seen dimly in 
the dark, become in themselves the less substantial. 

As the prudent traveller, compelled to journey in the 
twilight, — while ever mindful of the risk of straying from the 
path and forming false judgments of the country round, 
viewed by the imperfect light, — yet, in his natural wish, that 
the sun would rise, neglects not to make the best use he can 
of his eyes, in the faint glimmering that is allowed him ; so, 
the wise Christian will not be led, by his conviction of the 
limited and imperfect nature of the human faculties, to 
slacken or remit, as vain, his enquiries. 



SUPPRESSION OF THE EXEP.CISE OF REASON. 53 

Truth is a steady thing, and acts steadily througli the rea- 
son, by the weight of evidence. To rest upon men's fancies 
and feelings only, is to work upon that which flags and be- 
comes sluggish when not continually roused by fresh excite- 
ment ; just as a drunkard is tempted to drink more deeply 
every day, from finding that his constitution needs the sti- 
mulant more and more. 

There is surely as much presumption in measuring every- 
thing by our own feelings, fancies, and prejudices, as by our 
own reasonings. 

Fancy, when once brought into religion, knows not where 
to stop. It is like one of those fiends in old stories which 
any one could raise, but which, when raised, could never be 
kept within the magic circle. 

Those who distrust all exercise of the intellect, while re- 
signing themselves freely to the guidance of what they call 
the heart, that is, their prejudices, passions, inclinations, and 
fancies, would do well to remember that the disciples were 
led by the dictates of a sound understanding to say, " JN"o 
man can do these miracles .... except God be with him," 
and then to believe and obey Jesus implicitly; but that 
Peter was led by his heart to say, " Be it far from thee, 
Lord; this shall not be unto thee." 

Each part of our nature should be duly controlled, and 
kept within its own proper province ; and the whole " brought 
into subjection to Christ," and dedicated to Him. But there 
is no real Christian humility — though there be debasement — 
in renouncing the exercise of human reason, to follow the 
dictates of human feeling. The Apostle's precept is, ^'in 
malice be ye children, but in understanding be men." 



54 ABUSE OF REASON. 

The voluntary humiliation of those Avho are ever declai-m- 
ing against the pride of human reason, and insisting on the 
necessity of being guided by the heart rather than the head, 
is a prostration not of themselves before God, but of one 
part of themselves before another part, and resembles the 
idolatry of the Israelites in the wilderness. The people 
stripped themselves of their golden ornaments, and cast them 
into the fire, "and there came out this calf." 

That faith which is counted for righteousness, consists not 
in believing without evidence, but in being open to evidence ; 
not in believing without good reason, but in listening to 
reason. 



IX. Abuse op Reason. 

Reason can never be better employed than in deciding 
where her operations must be stopped. — 

" Nescire velle quae magister optimus 
Docere non vult, erudita inscitia est." 

When once it has been ascertained that a Divine revela- 
tion exists, our own speculations ought to be controlled and 
regulated by that revelation ; they should never be suffered 
to range, unlimited and unassisted, on a subject on which 
God has himself decided that man is not competent, of him- 
self, to judge rightly. If Reason be enthroned as the judge 
and law-giver, she will not readily resign her seat and sub- 
mit her decisions to Revelation. 

There are two mistakes which have an especial tendency 
to lead to presumptuous speculation, one of the chief sources 



ABUSE OP REASON. 55 

of error in theological and metaphysical discussions : — first, 
the expectation, oftentimes illgrounded, thsitjull and distinct 
notions may be obtained of whatever is revealed in Scrip- 
ture ; and secondly, the mistake of supposing that we under- 
stand more clearly than we do, any thing of which the name 
is very familiar to us : a mistake like that of him who, be- 
cause a letter of the alphabet is employed in algebraical 
calculations to denote some unknown quantity, should sup- 
pose that, by this means, it becomes at once a known 
quantity. 

It is not that one of the philosophical theories that have 
been introduced to explain the Christian dispensation is 
wrong for this reason, and another for that, but they are all 
wrong alike ; because they are theories relative to matters 
on which to form any philosophical theories whatever, is 
vain, and absurd, and irreverent : 

" Unus utrique 
Error; sed variis illudit partibus." 

It is well worth while to remark the manner in which each 
form of "philosophy and vain deceit" is opposed by the 
sacred writers, and by John in particular. Suppose a plain 
man to have been listening to a great deal of ingenious, 
speculative conjecture as to what must be, or are likely to be, 
the climate, condition, and productions of a certain distant 
country, and to reply, " I know, as a matter of fact, and 
can bear witness, that none of these things are as you say, 
for I am intimate with a person, whom you know to be of 
unquestioned knowledge and credibility, who is a native of 
that country ; I have conversed much with him on the sub- 
ject, and he has shoAvn me the productions of the country. 
I will tell you what he has said to me, and what he ha,s 



66 ABUSE OF KEASON. 

shown me, which will prove to you that your speculations are 
wholly unfounded." Now just such is the character of 
John's Gospel. 

As, in total darkness, or in respect of objects beyond our 
horizon, the dimmest and the clearest sight are on a level, so 
learning cannot advance one man beyond another, in the 
comprehension of things confessedly beyond the reach of the 
human faculties. 

To bring in human philosophy to help out Kevelation, 
when it cannot be made even to seem to gratify curiosity 
about things of no practical importance, is to bring a lamp 
to the dial-plate, when the sun-light fails, in order to find 
out the hour. 

To dare to believe less, or to pretend to understand more, 
than God has expressly revealed, is equally profane presump- 
tion. 

The next best thing to understanding the whole of any 
subject, is to be aware of that part of it we do not understand. 

The old proverb, " A fool can ask more questions than a 
wise man can answer," may very fairly have this added as a 
rider to it, "A wise man cannot ask more questions than he 
will find fools ready to answer." 

Too much attention cannot be bestowed on that important 
yet much neglected branch of learning — the knowledge of 
man's ignorance. 

Of matters relating to the Deity none need know less, and 
none can know more than the Almighty has revealed. 



ABUSE OF REASON. 57 

We should study to be wise, not above Scripture, but in 
Scripture ; to learn, not the things which God has concealed, 
but what he has revealed. 

Where full and accurate knowledge is not to be attained, 
it is a great point to keep clear of presumptuous error. 
Where the darkness cannot be removed, it is a great point 
to be aware that it is darkness, instead of being deceived and 
misled, by false lights and delusive appearances. 

To seek to be "wise above that which is written," is to 
forget, that, by want of humility was that ruin incurred to 
retrieve which God was made man in Christ Jesus, who 
" humbled Himself unto death ;" and to repeat the presump- 
tuous transgression, which had shut the gates of eternal life. 
By inquisitive pride was immortal happiness forfeited, and 
the path by which we must travel back to its recovery, is 
that of patient and resigned humility. 

The best heathen moralists knew not that the first step to 
elevation is humility ; that though the palace of Wisdom be, 
indeed, a lofty structure, its entrance is low, and it forbids 
admission without bending. They knew not, or at least, 
taught not, that our nature must be exalted by first under- 
standing and acknowledging the full amount of its weakness 
and imperfection, — "Jesus called unto Plim a little child, 
and set him in the midst;" — what other teacher ever did the 
like? 

There are three points of analogy in our situation to that 
of children — as respects knowledge. It is, 1st, relative in 
kind ; — 2nd, scanty and imperfect in degree ; — and, 3rd, 
practically sufficient. And in regard to the duties thence 



58 ABUSE OF REASON. 

resulting, thej are humility, docility, and devoted and affec- 
tionate submission to a Father's 'will. 

As a child's father may be some mighty sovereign, or an 
eminent statesman, poet, philosopher, or warrior — one whose 
life is of importance to millions, or whose fame spreads over 
half the globe ; and yet be regarded by the child, who has 
but a very faint, if any, conception of all this, merely as Ms 
father ; so our knowledge of God is almost entirely relative. 
— He is revealed to us, not as He is in Himself, but, chiefly 
as He is in relation to ourselves. 

It is accounted a mark of silly presumption in a child, to 
pretend to understand fully, and pronounce upon positively, 
the nature of anything as it is in itself; or to suppose that 
his friends have no other concerns to attend to, beside what 
relates to him. And is it not something worse than childish, 
to reason upon and discuss boldly, and pronounce upon dog- 
matically, the attributes and acts of God ! If humility is 
essentially becoming in a child, it must also be in a Christian, 
who is, and ever must be, in respect of the Creator, a child, 
and much less than a child. 

As the earthly parent, whose character and designs are 
very imperfectly and indistinctly understood by his little 
children, yet communicates enough to them to entitle him to 
their love and confidence, and cheerful obedience ; so the 
knowledge imparted to us in the Scriptures is suflScient for 
all practical purposes. — Amid all our weakness and ignorance 
that which we can best understand is our duty. 

The absurd mistakes of children, from concluding that 
things must be alike because they are analogous and bear 



SUPERSTITION. 59 

similar relations to something else, may serve as a mirror to 
show the sort of mistakes we have also to guard against in 
the notions we form of the Almighty. 

We should not rest satisfied with having admitted once for 
all, but we must also keep steadily in view, the necessity of 
a most reverent and trembling caution, and self-distrust, 
when we speak of "the secret things" that "belong to the 
Lord our God." 

The Christian, while earnestly seeking such knowledge as 
is " able to make (us) wise unto salvation, through faith 
which is in Christ Jesus," should in his studies keep in mind 
that we now know but " in part" and see " through a glass, 
darkly;" and by his life illustrate his conviction, that the 
" things which are revealed belong unto us, ... . that we 
may do all the works of this Law." 



X. Superstition. 
Evert truth, like true coin, has its counterfeit. 

Superstition is not (as it has been defined) an excess of re- 
ligious feeling, but a misdirection of it, an exhausting of it 
on vanities of man's devising. 

Nothing is harmless that is mistaJcen for a virtue. 

The more disposed any one is to submissive veneration, 
the greater the importance of guarding him against misdi- 



60 SUPERSTITION. 

reeled veneration— against false piety ; against receiving as 
Divine, what, in reality, is human. 

Minds strongly predisposed to superstition, may be com- 
pared to heavy bodies just balanced on the verge of a pre- 
cipice. The slightest touch will send them over ; and then, 
the greatest exertion that can be made, may be insufficient 
to arrest their fall. 

Fanaticism implies Superstition; but is not necessarily 
implied by it. 

The more nearly any Superstitions approach to, so as to 
blend themselves with, true religion, the more do they dete- 
riorate the spirit of it : — the more does the poisonous para- 
site, twining round the fairest boughs of the good tree, 
blight, by its noxious neighbourhood, the fruits which that 
tree should have borne. 

Falsehood, like poison, will generally be rejected when ad- 
ministered alone ; but when blended with wholesome ingre- 
dients, may be swallowed unperceived. 

Almost every system of superstition, to be rightly under- 
stood, should be read backwards. The fable, of the un- 
buried, wandering disconsolate on the banks of the rivfer 
Styx, was not the cause, but the effect, of that anxiety 
about our mortal remains, which has been felt in every age 
and country. 

A readiness on the part of the people for delusion, is not 
so much the consequence, as itself the origin of priestcraft. 
It 'should not be forgotten, that the first recorded instance 



SUPERSTITIOlSr. 61 

of departure from purity of worship, as established by the 
revelation to the Israelites, was forced on the 'priest by the 
people. The excuse offered by Aaron for making the golden 
calf was, that he did it at the desire of the Israelites. 

To believe that the superstitious are, after all, on the safe 
side, is to believe that it is safe to combine with the medicines 
of a skilful physician, all the nostrums of all the ignorant 
practitioners in the neighbourhood. 

There is no safe side but the side of truth. 

One of the most prevailing characteristics of superstition, 
which is, at least, found, more or less, in most species of it, 
is the attributing of some sacred efficacy to the performance 
of an outward act, or the presence of some material object ; 
without anything else being needed, except an undoubtifig 
faith in that intrinsic efficacy. 

As a patient will take his revenge for the nauseous dose 
he dares not refuse to swallow, by abusive ridicule of the 
physician and his medicines, knowing that this will not, so 
long as he does but take the drugs, diminish their efficacy ; 
so, the votary of superstition profanely jests with the ob- 
servance he dares not put aside. Thus it is that superstition 
generates profaneness. 

The best that can be said of any outward forms, in them- 
selves harmless, is that they are well calculated to cherish 
feelings of rational devotion ; the worst that can be said of 
any of these, is that they are peculiarly liable to become 
superstitious. 
6 



62 SUPERSTITION'. 

To disjoin the means of grace from the fruits of grace, is 
to convert a sacrament into a charm. 

Empty forms convert the natural food of religion into its 
poison. 

The more our religion becomes a religion of visible objects, 
the more it becomes a religion of outward worship. The 
same tendency which makes men put the sign of an unseen 
object in the place of that object, makes them put the sign 
of inward worship in the place of inward worship. 

It is the general tendency of human nature to substitute 
the means of grace for the fruits of grace. ■ 

Superstition, in all its various forms and degrees, is not 
merely a folly to be ridiculed, but a mischief to be dreaded. 

Superstition is the more dangerous, from its providing an 
exercise for the natural and original sentiment of religion in 
the human mind ; and satisfying, by the practice of super- 
stitious ceremonies, this natural craving, (so to speak,) after 
Divine worship ; thus, more easily extinguishing true piety, 
setting the conscience at rest, and preoccupying, by an idol, 
God's place in the heart. 

Religion is the medicine of the soul, and our spiritual 
enemy knows that superstition is the specific poison that may 
most easily be blended with it, and will the most completely 
destroy its efficacy. 

He who rashly gives heed to superstitious delusions, errs 
not from excess of faith, but from want of faith ; for what is 



SUPERSTITION. 63 

true In his belief, he receives not because it is true, — but 
because it agrees with some prejudice or fancy of his own : 
and he is right, where he is right, only by chance. Having 
violated the spirit of the First Commandment, by regarding 
what is human with the veneration due to that only which is 
Divine, his worship, even of the true God, becomes an 
abomination. He has set up idols in his heart, and "the 
Lord, the jealous God, will set His face against that man." 

Where anything, not in itself moral or religious, is con- 
nected with religion. Superstition fastens upon that, because 
it is "worldly," and lets the rest go. Thus, when God's jus- 
tice is described in Scripture as vengeance, to show us that it 
pursues the oflFender as sternly as a revengeful man would 
pursue his enemy, Superstition fastens on the thought of 
God's thirsting for revenge, and regards sin only as an offence 
which provokes in God a desire of inflicting pain on somebody. 
Again, when water, or bread and wine, are made signs of 
the power of the Holy Spirit, or of Christ's body and blood 
sacrificed for us, superstition fastens on the Avater, or the 
bread and wine, as if they were the things themselves. When 
a place must be set apart for Divine worship. Superstition 
fancies that God dwells in that place, rather than in the 
hearts of the worshippers. When pictures or images of holy 
persons are set before us, Superstition fastens on the image, 
as if it were the reality. When rites or ceremonies are used 
to express our devotion, Superstition makes them our devo- 
tion. When prayers have to be said, Superstition makes the 
saying them, prayer. When good books are to be perused, 
Superstition makes the perusal, edification. When works are 
to be done from a good motive, Superstition makes the out- 
ward action the good work. When suffering/or righteousness' 
sake is commended, Superstition takes the suffering for merit ; 



64: THE LOVE OF NOVELTY. 

and so in many other instances. It seizes ever on the out- 
ward — on that which is not moral ; on that which strikes the 
senses or the imagination — and fastens there ; while true 
religion, on the contrary, calls on us to " lift up our hearts" 
from the earthly to the heavenly, and use the outward, as a 
help to the inward. 

Let but the stock of genuine Christianity shoot vigorously, 
and then its shoots will starve the superstitions that have 
been grafted in it. 



XI. The Love of Novelty. 

The love of novelty — the pleasure men have in the idea 
of being original thinkers, or at least of being able to shake 
off established prejudices — often impede the pursuit of truth 
for its own sake, and make it a secondary object. 

A man who is excessive in his dread of excessive deference, 
will be very apt to fall into the opposite extreme of courting 
paradox and striving after originality. 

Some men are zealous for truth, provided it be truth 
brought to light by themselves. 

As custom will often blind men to the good, as well as to 
the evil effects, of any long established system, we must 
never alter for the mere sake of altering, nor indulge the 
craving after novelty for its own sake. 



THE LOVE OF NOVELTY. 65 

In pliilosopliy, the pursuit of novelty and of truth may 
often chance to coincide ; in religion, seldom, if ever. 

There are two kinds of " New Truth" and of "Discovery," 
the distinction between which is most important. First, such 
truths as were, before they were discovered, absolutely un- 
known, being not implied by anything we previously knew. 
Such are all matters of fact, strictly so called, when first 
made known to one who had not any such previous know- 
ledge, as would enable him to ascertain them a priori ; i. e., 
by reasoning ; as, if we inform a man that we have a colony 
in New South Wales. The communication of this kind of 
knowledge is properly called information. We gain it from 
observation and from testimony. No mere internal workings 
of our own minds, or mere discussions in words, will make 
such a fact known to us, though there is great room for saga- 
city in judging tvJiat testimony to admit, and in the forming 
of conjectures, that may lead to profitable observation. The 
other class of discoveries is of a very difierent nature. That 
which may be elicited by reasoning, and consequently is im- 
plied in that which we already know, we assent to on that 
ground, and not from observation or testimony. To all prac- 
tical purposes, indeed, a truth of this description may be as 
completely unknown to us as the others ; but as soon as it is 
set before us, and the argument by which it is connected 
with our previous notions made clear, we recognize it as 
something conformable to, and contained in our former 
belief. We are conscious that we possess in what we already 
know, the means to ascertain the truth of it, that we have a 
right, in short, to bear our testimony to its truth. 

Suppose there is a vein of metal on a man's estate, which 
he does not know of; is it part of his possessions or not? 
and when he finds it out and works it, does he then acquire 
6* 



66 THE LOVE OF NOVELTY. 

a new possession or not ? Certainly not a new possession in 
the same sense as if he had a fresh estate bequeathed to him, 
which he had formerly no right to ; but to all practical pur- 
poses, it is a new possession. Again, reasoning has been 
aptly compared to the piling together blocks of stone ; on 
each of which, as on a pedestal, a man can raise himself a 
small, and but a small, height above the plain; but which 
when skilfully built up, will form a flight of steps, which will 
raise him to a great elevation. Noav, (to pursue this ana- 
logy,) when the materials are all ready to the builder's hand, 
the blocks ready, dug, and brought, his work resembles one 
of the two kinds of discovery just mentioned, viz., that to 
which we have assigned the name of instruction : but if his 
materials are to be entirely, or in part, provided by himself 
— if he himself is forced to dig fresh blocks from the quarry 
—this corresponds to the other kind of discovery. 

"Man," says the illustrious Lord Bacon, "having the 
office of attending on nature, and studying to ascertain her 
meaning, {naturce minister et iyiterpres,) is limited in his 
knowledge and his power by the observations he has made 
of the course of nature : for nature can be controlled only 
by submitting to her laws : in all our performances we can 
do nothing more than apply or remove bodies already exist- 
ing : the rest, nature accomplishes." Just so with Revela- 
tion. Man, — i. 0., uninspired man, — by attentive study of 
the Scriptures, may learn much of God's dealings with our 
race, and of His gracious offers and promises ; and may so 
apply this knowledge, and avail himself of those offers, as to 
become " wise unto salvation through faith Avhich is in Christ 
Jesus ;" but he can no more make or alter a revelation, than 
he can set aside the physical laws of the universe. 



THE LOVE OF NOVELTY. 67 

A new Truth, in the sense of something neither expressly 
nor virtually asserted before — not implied (involved) in any- 
thing already known — cannot be properly looked for in re- 
ligion. A full and final revelation having been made, no 
discovery, properly so called, of any high importance is to 
be expected ; not merely because the Book, which contains 
all we know of the Divine -will, has been so long before us 
(for so also has the book of nature, in which nevertheless we 
are daily reading new truths, which had escaped the re- 
searches of our predecessors), but because that Book was de- 
signed by the Almighty to convey such instruction as He 
judged needful for all, which purpose it would not have an- 
swered, if its true sense and doctrine were not understood by 
any for so many centuries. Could it be materially altered 
hj any new mode of interpretation from what has been uni- 
formly received, it cannot be called (at least a final) revela- 
tion. Elucidation, indeed, of minor points may be looked 
for, and be very valuable ; fresh topics of evidence may be 
expected (in these later times) to supply the defect of re- 
cent miracles — prophecies may become intelligible by their 
fulfilment — and fresh arguments in support of the essential 
doctrines may be brought forward. All this furnishes ample 
scope for the utmost conceivable ingenuity and originality 
of thought, and the unremitting labours of a whole life 
would be insufficient for accomplishing all that would be de- 
sirable on each of these points ; so that no excuse is left for 
indolence and continued ignorance ; — but still, unless our 
faith be the same in the main with that of the early Chris- 
tians, we may be well assured that it is unsound. 

The temptation of novelty cannot be too sedulously guarded 
against, when we consider how powerful a principle of human 
nature that must be, which could seduce even the hearers of 



68 THE DREAD OF INNOVATION. 

the Apostles themselves; who were led away by daring 
innovators, corrupting, with their own devices, the pure 
stream of Divine truth, even close to the fountain head. 

We must beware of an idle craving after novelties of our 
own devising, while the infallible and final revelation of God's 
will is before us ; and studiously repressing all care to be 
"wise above that which is written," endeavour to divert into 
some other channel, any eager desire we may naturally and 
reasonably feel for discovering, what may strictly be called, 
new truths. A boundless field lies open before us, nor need 
we fear that the stores of useful knowledge to be drawn from 
the study of nature and of science, will ever be exhausted. 



XII. The Dread of Innovation. 

A MISTAKEN dread of Innovation causes men to overlook 
the errors that are, in reality, the greatest innovations. 

The maxim, almost universally admitted, that there is so 
strong a love of novelty for its own sake, in the human mind, 
as to attach a character of danger to any change, though in 
itself small, and harmless or beneficial, seems scarcely borne 
out by experience. History records no event that indicates 
such a principle in human nature as a fondness for change 
for its own sake. Man's love of novelty belongs to recrea- 
tion, and ornaments, and the like ; not to the serious con- 
cerns of life, in which the mass of mankind are wedded to 
established usages and institutions, even when they have 
nothing but custom to recommend them. 



THE DREAD OF INNOVATION. 69 

As men are found tolerating in houses they have long 
inhabited, the inconvenience of some ill-planned door, or 
window, or passage, when the remedy would be easy ; while 
in a newly-built house, if any like inconvenience were found, 
an alteration would be made instantly, so it is in legislation 
and all human affairs. Recent experiment may bring to 
light and exaggerate the defects of a new system, but long 
familiarity blinds us to those very defects. 

An anecdote is told of a gentleman, who, being entangled 
in the intricacies of the numberless windings of the deep 
and shady Devonshire lanes, trotted briskly on, in the hope 
that he should at length come to some house whose inhabi- 
tants would direct him, or to some more open spot from 
which he could take a survey of the diiferent roads, and 
observe whither they led. He proceeded a long time in this 
manner, encouraged by observing, as he advanced, the prints 
of horses' feet, which indicated that he was in no unfrequented 
track : and these becoming continually more and more nu- 
merous, the further he went, he accordingly paid the less 
anxious attention to the bearings of the country, from 
increasing assurance that he was in the right way. But still 
he saw neither house nor human creature, and at length, the 
recurrence of the same objects by the roadside opened his 
eyes to the fact, that all this time, misled bj the multitude 
of the turnings, he had been riding in a circle ; and that the 
foot-marks, the sight of which had so cheered him, were those 
of Ms oivn horse ; their number, of course, increasing Avith 
every circuit he took. Had he not fortunately made this 
discovery, perhaps he might have been riding there now. 
Are not men in many parts of their conduct in life, liable 
thus to follow the track of their own footsteps, to set them- 



70 THE DREAD OP INNOVATION. 

selves an example, — and to flatter themselves that they are 
going right, from their conformity to their own precedent ? 

There is always a tendency to appeal, with the same kind 
of deference, to the authority of "old times," as to that of 
aged men, from associating with "old times," the impression 
of the superior wisdom resulting from experience, which, as a 
general rule, we attribute to old men. Yet no one is really 
ignorant that the world is older now than ever it was, and 
that the instruction to be derived from observation on the 
past must be greater, supposing other things equal, to every 
successive generation. 

It will often be found that the same truths, which when 
stated generally, are regarded as truisms not worth mention- 
ing, will, in their practical application, appear revolting 
paradoxes. 

In many a case of innovation, it might be found that what 
is new is not wrong, and what is wrong is not new. 

Seeming innovations are really restorations, returns to the 
right course, by the sudden correction of great errors, re- 
sulting from the accumulation of imperceptibly small ones. 
A striking instance is afforded in "the change of the style." 
Such restoration is but the scouring of a room, removing, in 
an hour or two, the dirt which had been gathering for 
several days, which is only called keeping it clean, not 
changing it. 

At the time of the Reformation, how startling was the idea 
that there could be several independent churches, owing no 
allegiance to the successors of Peter ! Yet, in awaking from 



THE DREAD OF INNOVATION. 71 

their first surprise, men found the novelty to be just the re- 
storation of the primitive state of things, the following of 
apostolic example ; so it is Vv^ith many a thing that is cried 
up, or cried down, as a novelty. 

Hurtful and extensive changes are often attributed to 
harmless and trifling ones — Post hoc; ergo, propter hoc. 
But though many instances may be found of small alterations 
being followed by great and mischievous ones, it is doubtful 
whether all history can furnish 'a single instance of the 
greater innovation having been, properly speaking, caused 
by the lesser. 

The best security against revolution is in constant correc- 
tion of abuses, and introduction of needed improvements. 
It is the neglect of timely repair that makes rebuilding 
necessary. 

To show that the present is not the fittest conceivable oc- 
casion for making a certain change in itself advisable, — that 
a better occasion may be imagined, or that a better occasion 
is past, — that the Sibylline books might have been purchased 
cheaper some time ago, is not enough to justify indefinite 
procrastination : it is requisite to show also that a more suit- 
able occasion is likely to arise ; and how soon ; and again, 
that it will have been worth waiting for ; and moreover, that 
men, when it does come, will be more disposed to take ad- 
vantage of it. 

To conceive a system — whether actually existing or ideal 
— so framed as to keep itself in good order, is to be beset by 
the same chimerical hope, in human afiairs, that has misled 
so many speculators in mechanics, — the vain expectation of 
attaining the perpetual motion. 



72 UNDUE DEFERENCE TO HUMAN AUTHORITY. 

To saj that no change shall take place is to pretend to 
control the course of the sun. To say that none shall occur 
except such as are undesigned, and accidental, is to say, that 
though the clock may gain or lose indefinitely, at least we 
take care it shall never be regulated. "And since," says 
Bacon, "things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be 
never altered for the better designedly, when is the evil to 
end?" 

The remedy of a remedy is a change far more easily to be 
brought about than the first change ; and, therefore, the im- 
perfect remedying of a bad law is in itself hopeful. While 
the morter is wet, a building is more readily altered. 

No opinion is to be received simply because it is old, or 
simply because it is new ; but only because it is true. We 
must equally beware of venturing rashly on untrodden 
paths, without a careful survey of the country, and of fol- 
lowing in too confident security, the track of our own foot- 
steps. 



XIII. Undue Deference to Human Authority. 

The great body of mankind show their humbleness of 
mind, by submitting themselves to man, instead of to God. 

To believe as others believe, is a compendious creed, taxing 
neither a man's intellect, nor his industry ; — a creed result- 
ing from the indolence — the spiritual carelessness, — the 
weakness and the dishonest ambition of human nature. 



UNDUE DEFERENCE TO HUMAN AUTHORITY. 73 

Orthodoxy, Tvliicli, strictly speaking, means right faith, in 
popular language, means conformity to what is generally 
received as the right faith. 

The reference so often made to the words of Vincentius 
Lirinensis, — " Quod semper, quod ubique, quod ah omnibus, 
cf-e." — seems altogether unaccountable. That whatever is 
believed, and always has been, by all Christians everywhere, 
is a part of the Christian faith, is a truism, as barren as it is 
undeniable. It cannot possibly be called in to solve aiiT/ 
question in dispute, since, by its own character, it relates 
expressly and exclusively to such points as never have been 
disputed among Christians. 

Authority, (in the sense of power,) in reference to any 
particular act or decision, does not admit of degrees ; while, 
on the other hand, authority, in the sense of a claim to defer- 
ence, admits of infinite degrees ; and, therefore, an appeal to 
an undefined authority of a vast and indefinite number of 
writers, extending over a very long and indefinite space of 
time, is, indeed, to set up a standard inaccessible from its 
very vagueness. 

It is no uncommon mistake, to imagine many witnesses to 
be bearing concurrent testimony to the same thing, when in 
truth they are attesting difierent things. Multitudes may 
agree in maintaining some system or doctrine which perhaps 
one out of a million may have convinced himself of, by rea- 
son and reflection ; while the rest have assented to it in im- 
plicit reliance on authority. One or two men may be bearing 
original testimony to some fact or transaction ; and one or 
two hundred who are repeating what they have heard from 
them, may be, in reality, only bearing witness to their having 
T 



74 UNDUE DEFERENCE TO HUMAN AUTHORITY. 

heard it, and to their own belief. The shops supply us -with 
abundance of busts and prints of some great man, all strik- 
ing likenesses — of each other. 

As, when a prevailing current in particular spots sets 
strongly towards certain shoals, we must expect that many 
vessels will strike on them ; so when the passions and pre- 
judices of man tend towards some particular errors, it must 
be expected that such errors will generally prevail ; the pre- 
sumption therefore is rather, if anything, against taking as 
authority the prevailing opinions. 

Who were the orthodox, and who were the true worshippers 
in Israel, when Elijah alone was left of the Lord's prophets, 
while Baal's prophets were four hundred and fifty men ? 

The exercise of private judgment in religious matters, is 
a right, but not a right that a man through modesty may 
waive ; for it is not more a right than a duty — nay, it is a 
right because it is a duty ; but were we to waive all conside- 
ration as to the right, and as to the duty, the important 
point remains of its necessity. 

The right of private judgment, is one, which, God has not 
merely given permission, that men may exercise, but made 
provision that they must. We may refrain from exercising 
it on this or that particular point, but it is only to transfer 
it to another point. For instance, a man distrusting his 
own knowledge of medicine, may refrain from exercising any 
judgment as to the remedies he should use, and may put 
himself wholly in the hands of a physician: that is, he 
judges that a physician is needful, and that such and such a 
practitioner is worthy of confidence. Or supposing he dis- 



UNDUE DEFERENCE TO HUMAN AUTHORITY. 75 

trusts liis own judgment on this point also, then, he consults 
some friend, whom he judges to be trustworthy, as to what 
physician he shall employ. On any matters in which a man 
takes serious interest, such as religious matters, he can avoid 
exercising private judgment, only by withdrawing his atten- 
tion as much as possible from the whole subject, except as 
far as regards outward observances and forms. 

Some momentous questions must first have been decided 
by private judgment, even by those who surrender it to 
human guidance. 1st. Whether there is a God. 2nd. 
Whether Christianity comes from God. 3rd. Whether they 
shall submit to human guidance ; and, 4th. Whose guidance 
it shall be. 

If we are competent to judge who our guide is to be, then 
our alleged unfitness for the exercise of private judgment 
is done away. If we are not competent to judge who is to 
be ; then, though we may admit the necessity of an infallible 
guide, we can never be sure that we have found one. Every 
thing will depend on the reasons we may have for trusting 
him ; for no building can be more firm than the foundation 
it rests on. 

To leave important questions to be decided, in the first in- 
stance, by those Avho are, by supposition, incompetent 
judges, and who for that very reason are to rely implicitly 
on an infallible guide, is to tell them that because they can- 
not steer their course without a pilot, they must make a 
voyage to a distant port in order to find one. 

It seems somewhat strange, that it is always by some rea- 
son or other, that men seek to persuade men to renounce 



76 UNDUE DEFERENCE TO HUMAN AUTHORITY. 

their reason, to argue men into neglecting arguments, and 
prove to them that they cannot judge of proofs. They for- 
get that their objections, as lying against the proofs of reason- 
ing itself, universally, will, therefore, of course apply to 
those very arguments they are themselves adducing. They 
are acting like the woodman, who had mounted a tree, and, 
who was so earnestly employed in cutting the boughs, that 
he unconsciously cut oiF the bough on which he was standing. 

To follow imperfect, uncertain, or corrupted traditions, in 
order to avoid erring in our own judgment, is but to exchange 
one danger for another. 

It is said that, some years ago, there was a bridge at Bath 
in so crazy a condition that persons chose rather to make a 
long circuit than run the risk of crossing it. One day, how- 
ever, a very nervous lady, hurrying home to dress for the 
evening, came suddenly upon the spot, without, till that 
moment, remembering the danger. What was she to do ? 
If she went on, the frail arch might give way umder her ; to 
go round would be fatiguing, and attended with loss of time. 
She stood for some minutes trembling in anxious hesitation ; 
at last a lucky thought occurred to her — she called for a 
sedan chair, and was carried over in that conveyance ! 

Now, when people, who think to escape the danger of 
having to judge for themselves in religious matters, by 
choosing to take some guide as an infallible one, and believe 
or disbelieve as he bids them, thus adding, to the undiminished 
previous chances of error, the additional chances against the 
authority they have chosen, — what is this but putting, not 
only their own weight, but that of the sedan chair also, on 
the totteriuff arch ? 



UNDUE DEFERENCE TO HUMAN AUTHORITY. 77 

For any error we adopt on our guide's authority ; and, 
furthermore, for bowing to his guidance without good proof of 
his legitimate authority, we shall have to answer to Him who 
has called upon us to " prove all things and hold fast that 
which is good." We are responsible, not only for doing, but 
also for leaving undone ; else the servant who hid his Lord's 
talent in the earth would have escaped condemnation. 

There is no real humility in the fancied renunciation of 
private judgment for submission to an infallible human 
authority. Though the gnomon of a sun-dial has no power 
of itself to indicate the hour, yet when the sun shines on it, 
the motions of its shadow must be as correct as those of the 
sun's rays which it follows ; and in like manner he is infal- 
lible, actually and practically, in his belief, even while speak- 
ing of himself as fallible, who always believes precisely what 
an infallible Church or leader believes. 

Pretenders to infallibility in religion have this advantage 
(if it is to be reckoned one) over other quacks, that the mis- 
chief which they do cannot be fully known till the great day. 
They make promises about the unseen world, and the victims 
of their deceit cannot come back from the grave to warn 
others. Hence, the belief in an infallible guidance is much 
more common in religious matters, than in the affairs of this 
world, where experience soon detects such impostors or vain 
fancies. 

The guides on whom, as the wise and learned, the mass of 
the people are implicitly to rely, soon become tmwise and 
Mwlearned, because there is none to detect their deficiencies ; 
they become ignorant of Scripture, because left to be its 
authoritative interpreters. Their proper office being to train 
7* 



78 UNDUE DEFERENCE TO HUMAN AUTHORITY. 

their less enlightened brethren to " give a reason of the hope 
that is in them," they save themselves this labour by training 
them to do without a reason. 

The instructors of a people need far more knowledge than 
their oracles. 

That it is not the will of God, that man should have re- 
course to any human infallible tribunal, is at once the 
simplest, and the most decisive argument against doing so ; 
and that it is not His will, is determined, by the fact that no 
such tribunal exists. Our conjecture that, in a Divine dis- 
pensation, a provision is requisite, and therefore to be ex- 
pected, for a power of infallibly interpreting Scripture, and 
deciding finally all questions that may arise, cannot alter 
facts. If we are to infer the existence of a miracle, because 
we conclude it to be important, Ave make ourselves the stand- 
ard for the Divine procecdure. 

Since the very purpose for which an infallible guide is 
supposed to be needed, is the removal of all reasonable doubt, 
it is plain that if God had thought fit to provide us with such 
a guide, He would not have left it at all doubtful, where we 
are to look for that guide. 

Supposing the Apostles and their Divine Master had really 
regarded it as a part — and it must have been a most essential 
part, if one at all — of the Christian system ; had they really 
designed that there should be, for the Universal Church, any 
institution answering to the Oracle of God at the Tabernacle, 
it is wholly incredible, that the Lord Jesus Himself should 
be perpetually spoken of as the Head of His Church, without 
any' reference to any supreme authority on earth, to any 



UNDUE DEFERENCE TO HUMAN AUTHORITY. 79 

human body as His representative and vicegerent. Now they 
do not merely omit all such reference, but they omit it in 
such a manner, and under such circumstances, as plainly to 
amount to an exclusion. A ship was about to sail for a cer- 
tain harbour without the captain, who had been usually the 
commander, but who Avas then called to serve elsewhere. He 
came on board to take leave, and to warn the ofiScers and 
others of the dangerous rocks and shoals, which, to his 
knowledge, beset the entrance ; exhorting them to keep a 
good look-out, and also to enquire carefully into the charac- 
ter of any pilot who might offer his services ; as some, he 
was certain, were in league with wreckers and would pur- 
posely steer the ship on rocks, that these wretches might 
plunder the wreck. And if we were told, there was, to his 
knoivledge, a light-liouse erected there, as a sure land-mark ; 
and a ship could not go wrong, that did but steer straight for 
that ; should we not at once exclaim, that since Tie said not 
a word of this, he must be either a fool or a knave ? And 
on being assured that he was an eminently wise and good 
man, and thoroughly well informed, we should say, " Then 
this story of the light-house must be a fiction." 

And now look at Paul's farewell (Acts xx. 29 — 31) to the 
elders at Miletus, where, in the immediate prospect of death, 
warning his disciples of the dangers to which they Avould be 
exposed, and shoAving them how to meet them, he said not 
one word of any infallible judge or tribunal, but only ex- 
horted them to watch, and remember what had been taught 
them. 

The natural result of compulsory cessation of discussion 
is an apathetic tranquillity, an indolent, uninquiring acqui- 
escence best characterized by the expression, " Seeing then, 



80 UNDUE DEFERENCE TO HUMAN AUTHORITY. 

that these things cannot be spoken against, ye ought to bo 
quiet." 

The craving for infallibillity is only, an enquiry after some 
mode of exemption from all further enquiry; only, a care to 
obtain relief from all further need of care ; only, a naviga- 
tion in search of some safe haven, in which the helm may be 
abandoned, and the vessel left to ride securely, without any 
need of Avatching the winds and currents, and of looking out 
for shoals and rocks ; only, a hope to acquire a release from 
all necessity of vigilant circumspection. Can we wonder, 
then, that all that ministers to such a principle should meet 
with ready acceptance from human indolence and spiritual 
carelessness ? 

The abstaining from all reasoning and all investigation, 
does not always secure freedom from all uneasy doubt — a 
desire for which creates the craving for infallibillity. Once 
granted that the church, sect, or leader, we have taken as 
our guide, is perfectly infallible, and there is an end of all 
doubts respecting particular points ; but this is, in effect, to 
shut out what may be merely apparent doubts, only to leave 
room for one great and real doubt which pervades the whole. 
An uneasy doubt will sometimes haunt a man, — in spite of 
his efforts to repress it, and however strenuously he may 
deny, even to himself, its existence, whether the infallibility 
claimed, which is the foundation of the whole building, be it- 
self really well established, — a suspicion will occasionally 
cross the mind, however strenuously repelled, " Is there not 
a lie in my right handf And the reluctance often shown 
to examine the foundation, and ascertain whether it is really 
sound, is an indication not of full confidence in its firmness, 
but 'of a lurking suspicion that it will not bear examining. 



UNDUE DEFERENCE TO HUMAN AUTHORITY. 81 

Tlie faith of those who depend on the authority of living 
guides now, is plainly quite different from the faith of the 
early Christians, who relied upon the testimony of the com- 
petent witnesses who were then living. Those then, who 
ground their faith upon the testimony of those same Avitnesses 
preserved in the writings of the New Testament, really fol- 
low the example of the early Chm-ch, and "are built on the 
foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Him- 
self being the chief corner-stone." 

As the Christian minister should teach as Divine Truth, 
that only which he is convinced is scriptural, so his hearers 
should receive as Divine Truth, that only which they are 
convinced is scriptural. 

To give to the decisions of any uninspired man, or body 
of men, that implicit deference due to the declarations and 
precepts of Holy Scripture, and due to nothing else, is not 
humble piety, but profane presumption. 

The Scriptures are not merely like the elementary propo- 
sitions in mathematics, the first step and foundation of proof, 
but the only source of proof. 

To refer to the formularies of a Church as tests of the 
fitness of persons to be members of it, is allowable and ex- 
pedient ; but to refer for the proof or disproof of doctrines 
solely or chiefly, to any, the most justly venerated, human 
authority, is to rob Scripture of its due dignity and proper 
ofiice, and go so far on the way to establish the dangerous 
and encroaching precedent, of substituting human authority 
for Divine. 



82 UNDUE DEFERENCE TO HUMAN AUTHORITY. 

If any human interpretation or comment is to be received 
implicitly and without appeal, it is placed practically, as far 
as relates to everything except a mere question of dignity, 
on a level with Scripture. Among the Parliamentarians at 
the time of the civil war, there were many, at first a great 
majority, who professed to obey the king's commands, as 
notified to them hy Parliament, and levied forces in the 
king's name, against his person. If any one admitted Par- 
liament to be the sole and authoritative interpreter and ex- 
pounder of the regal commands, and this, without any check 
from any other power, it is plain that he virtually admitted 
the sovereignty of that Parliament, just as much as if he had 
recognized their formal deposition of the king. 

As in the attempt to make both gold and silver the stand- 
ard of currency, it will be found that any variation, however 
slight or however unfrequent, in their relative value, is sufii- 
cient to throw all accounts into confusion ; so the endeavor 
at conformity in doctrine to the scriptural and the orthodox, 
is to strive for an unattainable object, unattainable for the 
same reason that no man can serve two masters, not because 
they are necessarily leading opposite Avays, but simply because 
they are two and not one. 

However near the adherents of the " orthodox" and the 
"scriptural" respectively may appear in regard of the doc- 
trines which they hold, still they go on different principles, 
like one man going by the clock, and another by the sun- 
dial. And he who aims at conforming to each of two stand- 
ards, is "a double-minded man," and will be "unstable in 
all his ways." 

Divine Truth must be no more taught as the commandments 
of men, than the commandments of men as Divine Truth. 



UNDUE DEFERENCE TO HUMAN AUTHORITY. 83 

Human teacliing in religion is liigWy useful so long as 
Scripture proof is readily produced. It bears the same rela- 
tion to Scripture, that what is called paper-currency does to 
gold and silver. Its sole value lies in the knowledge that it 
is convertible, on demand, into the precious metal it repre- 
sents. 

The claim to infallibility for human decisions, and the 
comparative disregard to Scripture, are the effect, not the 
cause, of that tendency to pay undue deference to human 
authority, from which, arising as it does in the principles of 
our nature, we can never be secure but by continual self- 
distrust, and by referring at every step "to the Law and to 
the Testimony," — continually tracing up the stream of reli- 
gious knowledge to the pure fountain-head of Scripture. The 
care, and diligence, and patient thought, and watchful obser- 
vation, required for this drawing for ourselves the Christian 
truths, will be repaid, by our having through Divine grace, 
those truths ultimately fixed in the heart, as well as in the 
understanding. We shall not only "read," but, "mark, 
learn, and inwardly digest" them^ so that the heavenly 
nourishment will enter into our whole frame, and make us 
not merely sound theologians, but sincere Christians, and 
good men, truly " wise unto salvation through faith which is 
in Christ Jesus." 

In guarding against excessive deference and exclusive 
regard to authority of persons, rather than arguments, (which 
is undoubtedly one of the chief fallacies against which men 
ought to be cautioned,) it should not be forgotten, that if the 
opposite mode of judging, in every case, were to be adopted 
without limitation, it is plain that children could not be edu- 
cated. Indeed, happily for the world, most of them who 



84 UNDUE DEFERENCE TO HUMAN AUTHORITY. 

should be allowed to proceed on this plan, would, in conse- 
quence, perish in childhood. A pious Christian, again, has 
the same implicit reliance on his God, even when unable to 
judge of the reasonableness of His commands and dispensa- 
tions, as a dutiful and affectionate child has on a tender 
parent. Now though such a man is, of course, regarded by 
an Atheist as weak and absurd, it is surely on account of his 
helief, not of his consequent conduct, that he is so regarded. 
Even Atheists would in general admit that he is acting rea- 
sonably, on the supposition that there is a God, who has 
revealed Himself to man. 

He who renounces all pretensions to infallibility, whether 
an immediate, and personal, or a derived infallibility, by 
owning himself to be neither impeccable nor infallible, and by 
consenting to undergo the trials of vigilance and of patience, 
which God has appointed for him, need not fear to forfeit by 
this the attainment of truth — all cheerful hope of final salva- 
tion, — all "joy and peace in believing." On the contrary, 
while such as have sought for peace — for mental tran- 
quillity and satisfaction — rather than for truth, will often fail 
both of truth and peace; he who seeks truth first, is more 
likely to attain both, from his gracious Master. He has bid 
us watch and pray ; He has taught us, through His blessed 
Apostle to "take heed to ourselves," and to "work out our 
own salvation with fear and trembling ;" and He has declared 
that He " worketh in us ;" He has bid us " rejoice in hope ;" 
He has promised that He will not suffer us to be " tempted 
above that we are able to bear;" and He has taught us to 
look forward to the time, when we shall no longer see as by 
means of a mirror "darkly," but "face to face;" — when we 
shall know, not "in part," but "even as we are known;" — 
when faith shall be succeeded by certainty, and hope be 



THE LOVE OF APPROBATIOF. 85 

ripened into enjoyment. His precepts and his promises go 
together ; His support and comfort are given to those vjho 
seek for them in the "v^ay He has himself appointed. 



XIV. The Love of Approbation and the Dread of 

Censure. 

Human approbation is a very good thing, when it happens 
to come incidentally; but it must never be made an object. 
The desire of truth must reign supreme, and everything else 
be welcomed only if coming in her train. 

Deference for the (supposed) wise and good, and love of 
approbation, are two very distinct things, though in practice 
very difficult to be distinguished. The former may be felt 
towards those whom we never can meet with — who, perhaps, 
were dead, ages before we were born, and survive only in 
their writings. A man's desire to find himself in agreement 
with Aristotle, or Bacon, or Locke, or Paley, &c., however 
misplaced, or excessive, can have nothing to do with their 
approval of Mm. But when he is glad to concur with some 
living friends, whom he thinks highly of, and dreads to differ 
from, then, it is very difficult to decide how far this feeling 
is the j^'^'^sumjJtion framed hy Ids judgment, in favour of the 
correctness of their views ; and how far it is the desire of 
their approbation and sympathy, and dread of the reverse. 
It is the desire of personal approbation, the excessive care 
concerning what is thought of himself, that the lover of 
truth is bound so severely to check. 



86 TUB LOVE OF APPROBATION, ETC. 

The lover of Truth, for its own sake, must set himself to 
act as if he cared nothing for either censure or approval, 
and in time he gets hardened as the Canadians do to walking 
in snow-shoes (raquets). At first a man is almost crippled 
with the "waZ au raquet," — the pain and swelling of the 
feet ; but the prescription is to go on walking in them, as if 
you felt nothing at all, and in a few days you do feel nothing. 
And this will always be the case, more or less, through 
God's help, with him who earnestly seeks to act unto the 
Lord and not unto men, if he will persevere, and persevere 
from a right motive. 

Much eloquence and ingenuity is often exerted, in des- 
canting on the propriety of not being wholly indifierent to 
the opinions formed of one — the impossibility of eradicating 
the regard for approbation — and the folly of attempting it, 
or pretending to it, &c. Now this is all very true ; the pro- 
pensity to desire to gain approval and escape censure, we are 
not called on to extirpate, (that being, I conceive, impossible ;) 
but our care and pains are better bestowed in Tcee-ping under 
the feeling, than in vindicating it. It must be treated like 
the grass on a lawn which you wish to keep in good order ; 
you neither attempt nor wish to destroy the grass ; but you 
mow it down from time to time, as close as you possibly can, 
well trusting that there will be quite enough left, and that it 
will be sure to grow again. 

To obtain the approbation of the wise and good by doing 
what is right, simply because it is right, is most gratifying to 
that natural and allowable wish, to escape the censure and 
claim the apj^roval of our fellow-creatures ; but to make this 
gratification, either wholly or partly, our object — to hold up 
a finger on purpose to gain the applause of the whole world, 



MISTAKEN REGARD TO UNITY. 87 

is unjustifiable. One difficulty in acting on this principle is, 
that it often is even a duty to seek the good opinion of 
others, not as an ultimate object for its own sake, but for 
the sake of influencing them for their own benefit, and that 
of others. "Let your light so shine before men that they 
may see your good works, and glorify your Father in 
heaven." But we are to watch and analyse the MOTIVES of 
even actions which we are sure are in themselves right. And 
this is a kind of vigilance which human nature is always 
struggling to escape. One class of men are satisfied so long 
as they do what is justifiable; — what may be done from a 
good motive and when so done would be right, and which 
therefore may be satisfactorily defended. Another class — 
the ascetic — are for cutting off every thing that may be a 
snare. They have heard of " the deceitfulness of riches," 
and so they vow poverty ; which is less trouble than ivatehing 
their motives in gaining and spending money. And so on 
with the rest. But if Ave would cut off all temptation, we 
must cut off our heads at once. 

Neither human applause, nor human censure, is to be 
taken as the test of truth; but either should set us upon 
testing ourselves. 



XV. Mistaken Regard to Unity, 

Agreement in religion is not genuine Christian concord, 
unless it be agreement in the genuine religion of the Gospel. 

Those who reach truth will reach unity ; for truth is one. 
But men may, and often do, gain unity without truth — which 



88 MISTAKEN REGARD TO UNITY. 

is SO far from being a good that it is a great evil. It makes 
falsehood strong, and the professors of it contented in their 
error. 

"No man can serve two masters," because when they are 
radically opposed " he will love the one and hate the other ;" 
and because, even though not necessarily opposed, they are 
not necessarily com^bined ; and cases will sometimes arise, in 
which he must " cleave to the one and despise" (disregard, 
and neglect) "the other." There is not anything necesarily 
wrong in aiming at temporal advantages. But whoever has 
resolved on obtaining wealth in one way or in another, will 
sometimes be led to violate duty ; and he, again, who is fully 
bent on " seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteous- 
ness," will sometimes find himself called on to renounce 
temporal advantages, which, through the honesty, frugality, 
and temperance which he had practised from higher motives, 
he may have attained. And so it is with the occasionally- 
rival claims of truth and of unity, or of any two objects which 
may possibly be in some instances opposed. We must make 
up our minds which, is, in that case, to give way. One must 
be the supreme — must be the "master." 

A mistaken notion of the Christian unity spoken of in the 
Scriptures, which represents it as consisting in having one 
community on earth to Avhich all Christians belong or ought 
to belong, and to whose government all are bound to submit, 
has led to truth being made the secondary, and not the para- 
mount object. 

The Church is undoubtedly one, and so is the human race 
one ; but not as a society, for as such, it is only one, when 
considered as to its future existence. Its present unity con- 



MISTAKEN EEGARD TO UNITY. 89 

sists in that its various societies are designed to be modelled 
on the same principles, and to enjoy common privileges ; 
" One Lord, one faith, one baptism ;" and all forming part 
of that great society of which the Head is in heaven, and of 
which many of the members only "live unto God" or exist 
in His counsels ; some having long since departed, and some 
being not yet born. The term unity is applicable to the 
Universal Church, as one in reference to its Supreme Head 
in heaven, not as one community on earth, as the human 
race is one in respect of the One Creator and Governor ; but 
this does not make it one family or one state. 

The Apostles founded Christian Churches, all based on the 
same principles, and having the same object in view, but all 
quite independent of each other. And while, by the inspira- 
tion of Him who knew what was in man, they delineated 
those Christian principles, which man could not have devised 
for himself, each Church has been left by the same Divine 
foresight, to make the application of those principles in its 
symbols, its forms of worship, and its ecclesiastical regula- 
tions ; and while steering its course by the chart and com- 
pass, which His holy Word supplies, to regulate for itself the 
sails and rudder, according to the winds and currents it may 
meet with. Now I have little doubt, that the sort of varia- 
tion resulting from this independence and freedom, so far 
from breaking the bond of peace is the best preservative of 
it. A number of neighbouring families, living in perfect unity, 
will be thrown into discord as soon as you compel them to 
form one family, and to observe in things intrinsically indif- 
ferent, the same rules : one e. (j., likes early hours, and another 
late ; one likes the windows open and another shut ; and thus 
by being brought too close together, they are driven into ill- 
will, by one being perpetually forced to give way to another. 



90 MISTAKEN REGARD TO UNITY. 

Of this character were the disputations which arose (though 
they subsequently assumed a different character) about 
church-music, the posture of the communicants, the colours 
of a minister's dress, the time of keeping Easter, &c. &c. 

To vindicate our own or any other Church not on the rea- 
sonable ground, that they are not at variance with gospel- 
principles, or with any Divine injunction designed to be of 
universal obligation, but on the ground of the exact con- 
formity, which it is notorious they do not possess, to the most 
ancient models, and even to go beyond this and condemn all 
Christians whose institutions and ordinances are not " one 
aiid utterly like" our own, on the ground of their departure 
from the apostolical precedent, which no Church has exactly 
adhered to — does seem, to use no harsher expression, not a 
little inconsistent and unreasonable. This principle would 
go to exclude at once from the pale of Christ's Church, 
almost every Christian body, since the first two or three cen- 
turies. 

Any system that makes unity the primary and indispensa- 
ble object to which all else must be sacrificed, robs its adhe- 
rents of the character of witnesses ; while minor differences 
make all the more undeniable and real, the testimony from 
the agreement in essential truth of persons left free to ex- 
amine. The testimony (to use a simple and obvious illustra- 
tion) of even a small number of e^e-witnesses of any transac- 
tion, even though possessing no extraordinary powers of 
vision, would outv/eigh that of countless millions, who should 
have resolved to close their eyes, and to receive and retail 
the report they heard from a single individual. 

Our religion was designed to renew indeed, but not to sub- 



MISTAKEN EEGARD TO UNITY. 91 

vert our nature — to exalt and purify each individual, but not 
to destroy his individuality. Whatever points are faulty, in- 
deed, must be corrected by our religion, or it will not have 
done its proper work; but many diiferences of taste and 
temper still remain, (and will give a certain tinge, even to 
the religion itself of each man,) which are in nowise hurtful, 
but may even be rendered serviceable to the general cause, — ■ 
and which ought no more to be made a source of mutual 
jealousy and dissension, than the diversity of spiritual gifts 
among the early Christians. 

We must carefully guard against confounding intellectual 
deficiencies with heretical perversity of will, remembering 
that the honest endeavours after religious knowledge, the 
sincere faith and diligent obedience of those of feeble under- 
standing or of uncultivated mind, are accepted by Him, in 
whose sight the wisest and ablest are but mere weakness and 
ignorance. 

The principle of sacrificing truth to unity creeps in gradu- 
ally. The sacrifice fiy'st demanded, is in general, not a great 
one. Men are led on stej) by step, from silence as to some 
mistake, to connivance at fallacies, and thence to suppres- 
sion, and then to misrepresentation of truth, and ultimately, 
to the support of known falsehood. 

Unity, when made the first object, is always an evil, since, 
besides the possibility that men may be united in what is 
erroneous and wrong in itself, it must be remembered, that 
whatever absolute truth there may be in what is assented to 
on such a principle, it is not truth, to those who assent to it 
not on conviction but for union's sake. 



92 MISTAKEN REGARD TO UNITY. 

Peace is too dearly puvcliased by slavery of any kind, es- 
pecially spiritual slavery. 

Controversy, though always an evil in itself, is sometimes 
a necessary evil. 

To give up everything that is worth contending about, in 
order to prevent hurtful contentions, is, for the sake of ex- 
tirpating noxious weedsj to condemn the field to perpetual 
sterility. 

Though the recollection that all sincere Christians have a 
common cause to maintain against falsehood, should not pre- 
vent us from pointing out the errors of our fellow Christians, 
yet it should certainly influence the manner of our doing so. 

As controversy should always be regarded as an evil in it- 
self, to be incurred only when necessary for the sake of im- 
portant good, this principle acted upon would alone exclude 
three different classes of subjects, all calculated to gender 
strife ; those which relate to matters, first, too deep and mys- 
terious ; or, secondly, too minute and trifling ; or, thirdly, 
too speculative and remote from Christian practice. 

The agitation of questions respecting the hidden counsels 
and nature of the Most High, has a peculiar tendency to 
gender strife ; for in a case where correct knowledge is im- 
possible to any, and where all are, in fact, in the wrong, 
there is but little likelihood of agreement ; like men who 
should rashly venture to explore a strange land in utter 
darkness, they will be scattered into a thousand devious 
paths. 



MISTAKEN REGARD TO UNITY. l:'o 

Those who, having magnified into serious evils, by inju- 
dicious opposition, heresies in themselves insignificant, yet 
appeal to the magnitude of those evils to prove that their op- 
position was called for, act like unskilful physicians, who, 
when by violent remedies, they have aggravated a trifling 
disease into a dangerous one, urge the violence of the symp- 
toms which they themselves have produced in justification of 
their practice. 

Men are usually no less jealous of names than of things ; 
it is therefore wise as well as charitable, not to insist, when 
the substance of truth is secured, on their adopting any form 
of stating it, offensive to them. 

So important are words in influencing our thoughts, and 
so great is their ambiguity, that no caution can be too great 
in the use of language in religious discussions, if we would 
not lay the foundation of incurable and most mischievous 
perplexity. 

He who in any discussion with those who differ from him, 
desires to unite the wisdom of the serpent with the harmless- 
ness of the dove, had better begin with the points of agree- 
ment, rather than of difference ; and to point out, and give 
them full credit for whatever truths may belong to their sys- 
tem, instead of confining himself to its errors. For there 
cannot be any profitable discussion between parties, who, not 
agreed in some thing, have no common ground to stand 
upon. Who will admit the conclusion that has not admitted 
the premises ? Moreover, falsehood can never gain assent 
except by being mixed up with some truth ; like a poison dis- 
guised in some wholesome substance. And as truth cannot 
of itself lead to error, but only to other truths which legiti- 



94 MISTAKEN REGARD TO UNITY. 

mately follow from it, the most effectual way of decomposing 
(to use a chemical expression) such a mixture, is, to ascertain 
first, the true portion of it, and show that this has no neces- 
sary connexion with the falsehood with which it has been 
combined. 

The universal and constant liability, to forget in the heat 
of controversy every thing but the matter in debate, to 
think of nothing but of proving the present point, and to 
resort to any means of accomplishing the purpose in hand, 
regardless of the possibility of future mischiefs in a different 
quarter, is, when carried out into practice, a seeming viola- 
tion of the command given to the Israelites in their sieges, 
not to cut down trees which afford food for man, to construct 
their warlike engines ; but to keep sacred from the ravages 
of war, what would be useful in the future days of peace. 

We should continually examine ourselves whether we are 
arguing for the love of truth, or the love of triumph. 

There is perhaps no one cause that contributes to harden 
men in error, and in misconduct of any kind, than the dread 
that a confession of having been wrong, will be met by hu- 
miliating exultation. 

It should not be forgotten, that while unity among Chris- 
tians is an object so desirable that everything but truth 
should be sacrificed to it, it must after all depend on others^ 
as much as on ourselves ; and our endeavours to promote it, 
may be completely defeated through their fault ; truth is a 
benefit — and a benefit of the first importance — to those who 
receive it themselves, even though they should have to 
lament its rejection by many others. 



PARTY-SPIRIT. 95 

To labour for peace with man, is the Christian's duty ; to 
labour often vainlj, is his appointed trial ; peace with God is 
his promised consolation; and eternal peace "will be his "ex- 
ceeding great reward." 



XYI. Party-Spirit. 

The tendency of party-spirit has ever been to disguise, 
and propagate, and support error. 

V art j-spirit is the excess and perversion of a legitimate, 
limited social feeling, that may be designated ^^vtj-feeling ; 
and, deriving itself from the same springs as the love of 
kindred or of country, though neither so sacred as the first 
of these, nor so noble as the second, is yet as natural as 
either. 

As kindled brands, if left to themselves separately, would 
be soon extinct, but, when thrown together, burst into a 
blaze, so is every feeling heightened immeasurably in ardour 
by the union of men in parties. 

Party-spirit enlists man's virtues in the cause of his vices. 

He who would desire to have an accurate description of 
party-spirit, need only go through Paul's description of 
Charity, reversing every point in the detail. 

If it be hard to keep clear, it is still harder to become, 
clear of party. 



96 PAETY-SPIIIIT. 

The wisli to tliink it justifiable to agree with, and adhere 
to, a party, is likely to bias a man's judgment, rather than 
to influence him contrary to his judgment. 

The connexion of sound and erroneous views, resulting 
from their being both held by the same party, tends to es- 
stablish and propagate error. In the usual adoption by each 
member of the doctrines, in the mass, whatever may chance 
to be ivrong in this set of opinions and principles, is likely to 
pass unobserved, or to be disguised as to its real character, 
by its artificial connexion with so much that has been so long 
re££arded as right. 



■'S*- 



Many a one is so far gone in party as to be proof-p^oof, 
and cares no more for facts than the Leviathan does for 
spears. 

That preference of the means to the end, of the distinc- 
tions of a party to the truth, for the defence or prumulga- 
tion of which it was originally formed, which is one grand 
characteristic of party-spirit, is like the sedulously guarding 
and keeping in repair the fortifications of a city, while the 
city itself is suffered to fall into decay ; or, like the clinging 
to a standard, while the cause in which it was uplifted is 
forgotten. 

Some men have but little fear either of lukewarmness or 
religious ignorance, in comparison of heterodoxy or dissent, 
and, careless whether their brethren be Christians provided 
they be not sectaries, would, as it were, condemn them to 
perish by famine, lest they should use unwholesome food. 
They say with the disciples, "We forbade him to cast out 
demons because he joined not with us." 



PARTY-SPIRIT. 97 

Every now and then, a case occurs which affords (Bacon's) 
experimentum crueis, whether the truth a man actually holds, 
and for which there is good evidence, is held by him on evi- 
dence, and as truth, or as part of the creed of a party. 

Nineteen twentieths are so biassed by party views, that 
what is communicated by them is, in respect of knowledge, a 
kind of negative quantity. It is a one-sided view, much more 
misleading than total ignorance ; and yet they give very 
often their own real impressions. Just as on an Irish jaunt- 
ing-car, the parties, sitting back to back, give, at the end of 
a tour, a faithful report of what they have seen, quite at 
variance with each other, having hardly caught even a glimpse 
of the same objects. 

It is only when error is seen to be opposed, not because 
maintained by such and such persons, but because it is error, 
that it is seen that it is the love of truth, and not party-spirit, 
that infliiences to that opposition. It was thus that the Lord 
braved the disappointment of the Pharisees at His censures 
of tJiem, after " He had put the Sadducees to silence." 

The adoption by several persons of the same views on 
sincere conviction, and not in deference to one another's 
authority, is so far from constituting them a party, that, on 
the contrary, party-spirit is most decidedly shown in respect 
of those points wherein men, not coinciding in their judg- 
ments, make mutual sacrifices of their respective opinions, 
just as the Roman triumvir, each sacrificed some of his owa 
friends to the joint proscription. 

Men may be very wrong on the right side. Parties are 
apt to generate parties, because men's abhorrence of the 
9 



98 THE SPIRIT OF PEKSECUTIOX. 

extreme into which one party has been hurried leads them 
too often to form an opposite party, that before long, rushes 
into an extreme on the opposite side. 

General and indefinite adherence to a religious party, is a 
setting up man in the place of God — "Lord, I will follow 
thee whithersoever thou goest," is the expression of precisely 
that sort of allegiance which is due to God and not to man. 
"Be not ye called master, for one is your Master, even 
Christ." 



XVII. The Spirit of Persecution. 

Truth is under a veil, and its proper aspect disguised, 
when supported by means which might equally support false- 
hood. 

To employ force instead of sound reasons, in opposing 
religious error and infidelity, is to throw away the only wea- 
pons peculiar to truth, and the only ones that give truth an 
advantage, to take up those which can give it none. 

The question, What religion is true ? and the question as 
to the way in which the professors of a religion we deem to 
be false should be treated, are often confounded. 

It should never be forgotten that He who declared He 
could have called in the aid of " more than twelve legions of 
angels," and to whom " all power was given in heaven and 
in earth," sent forth His disciples not to subjugate or to 
coerce, but to ^'^ teach all nations." 



THE SPIRIT OF PERSECUTION. 99 

Our Lord did not merely claim spiritual dominion, but He 
also renounced temporal — He declared not merely that His 
kingdom is of the next world, but that it is not of this world. 
And this He did, when on his trial before a Roman governor 
for treason, — for a design to subvert, or in some way inter- 
fere with, the established government. To this charge, it is 
plain Pilate understood Him to plead not guilty, and gave 
credit to His plea, amounting as it did to a renunciation of 
all secular coercion, — all forcible measures in behalf of ■ His 
religion. 

As the very Apostles who inculcated, without any express 
limitation or exception, submission to civic rulers, and though 
Pagans, described them as powers '■^ordained of God" for 
the punishment of evil-doers, yet taught men, both by precept 
and example, to hold fast their faith in disobedience to the 
commiands of the rulers ; it is manifest they must have meant, 
and their hearers must have understood them to mean, that 
the province of the civil ruler is limited to secular concerns. 
For civil magistrates, therefore, to employ their coercive 
power in the cause of Christianity is not, as some think, to 
act, as civil magistrates, on Christian principles, but rather 
to cease to act on them. 

Men too often employ that violence in the cause of what 
they believe to be Divine truth, which Jesus Himself and His 
Apostles expressly forbade in the cause of what they knew 
to be Divine truth. 

There is not necessarily anything of the character of per- 
secution in doing violence to a man's conscience, for so long 
as false conscience, or an erroneous conscience is to be 



100 THE SPIRIT OF PERSECUTION. 

found, the plea of conscience would tend to tlie subversion 
of the whole fabric of society. 

To refuse or withhold on religious grounds anything to 
which a man had no previously existing right, is not perse- 
cution ; but merely the exercise of the right of the person 
withholding to do what he " will with his own." It might 
indicate a disposition to persecute, but does not involve the 
principle of persecution. 

The distinction between a civil or political right on the one 
hand, and a moral right on the other, is of incalculable im- 
portance. By rights of conscience, is to be understood, not 
necessarily that every one is right in the religion that he 
adopts, but that his neighbours have no right to interfere 
with his right. A man has a right, not necessarily a moral 
right, but a civil right, to worship God according to his own 
conscience, without suffering any hardship at the hand of his 
neighbour for so doing. 

There are no two things more often confounded, yet more 
perfectly distinct, than liberal tolerance and latitudinarian 
indifference. 

A man may advocate the removal of all religious disabili- 
ties consistently, and on intelligible principjes quite distinct 
from universal religious indifference ; but to retain some by 
way of proclaiming that he is not indifferent, and yet to 
allow the removal of others, is plainly to proclaim indiffer- 
ence as to the latter. 

Conscientious sincerity is friendly to tolerance as latitudi- 
narian indifference is to intolerance. He who is ready to 



THE SPIIIIT OF PERSECUTION. 101 

profess what he does not believe, will see no reason why 
others should not do the same ; while he whose own conscience 
is tender, will be the more disposed to respect the conscience 
of another, and to admit it to be the duty of all men to act 
upon their own convictions, in that way in which he thinks 
it a duty to act upon his. 

To defend the precluding any, on account of religion, from 
civil rights, on the ground that any master of a family as- 
sumes the right of requiring all the members of his house- 
hold to profess the religion he thinks best, is to take for 
granted that each country belongs to its governor in the same 
manner as the house of any individual belongs to him. 

As no tree is withered by the frost of the polar regions, 
or by the scorching winds of the Arabian deserts, because 
none can exist in those regions ; so there is no actual perse- 
cution in those countries where persecution has done its 
work, in crushing and preventing all resistance to religious 
error. Therefore, the absence of the infliction does not im- 
ply the absence of the spirit of persecution. 

Persecution is not wrong because it is cruel; but it is 
cruel because it is wrong. 

As men feel insult more than injury, so even a complete 
general despotism, weighing down all classes without excep- 
tion, is, in general, far more readily borne, that invidious 
distinctions drawn between a favoured and a depressed class 
of subjects. It is notorious accordingly, how much Sparta 
was weakened and endangered by the Helots ; and yet the 
Persian subjects of the great king had probably no larger 
share of civil rights, though they felt less galled by the re- 
9* 



102 THE SPIRIT OF PERSECUTION. 

striction, because surrounded by those who equally with 
themselves were abject slaves of the one powerful despot. 

To limit the term persecutor to one who persecutes the 
holders of a true religion, is, not only to render utterly vain 
all dissuasions from persecution, as every one will be sure to 
apply the term to his neighbour's belief and not to his own ; 
but it is also to attach no blame to persecution, but only to 
religious error ; for we cannot say that we blame a sovereign 
for killing or banishing one-half of his subjects, if our mean- 
ing be that we blame him only for not deciding rightly wJdch 
half it should be. 

As a narrow or a larger room is equally a prison if a man 
is forced to remain confined in it ; so the narrowing or the 
enlarging the bounds of orthodoxy does not constitute the 
absence, or the presence, of persecution. 

A man cannot be said to be at liberty, or to exercise his 
own judgment, if another — however rightly — decide for him, 
if he is not left to himself to take which side of an alterna- 
tive he thinks fit. To say that religious liberty does not 
imply irreligious liberty, is to say of a person that he is at 
liberty to remain within the walls of the prison, but not at 
liberty to leave it. 

What ! should we tolerate those who would extend no 
toleration to us ? Yes ; unless we are prepared to change, 
" Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you," into 
" whatsoever ye think that men would do unto you, even so 
do unto them." 

The principle of persecution — besides being wholly at 



THE BPIRIT OF PERSECUTION. 103 

variance "w-itL. the spirit of Christianity — acts also, as a kind 
of specific poison to sincere belief. Like a pestilential at- 
mosphere, it makes gradual and imperceptible advances in 
debilitating the system, and tainting the inmost springs of 
life, more or less speedily,, according to the constitution of 
each individual ; and carries ofi" its victims, one by one, 
without external blow, by a secret internal decay. For in 
proportion as men are accustomed to regard it as right that 
outward profession should be enforced, they will come to 
regard the inward belief, which cannot be enforced, as insig- 
nificant. Conformity will be regarded as the great object, 
and truth as a matter we need not be concerned about. . 

To defend Christianity by penal laws, is most seriously to 
injure its cause, by weakening the force, and lessening the 
value, of two important branches of evidence. It is to impair, 
not only the confirmation afforded by concurrence of testi- 
mony of voluntary professors, but the still more important 
evidence, the defiance of contradiction ; for it is but rational 
to believe what is not disproved, while we know that there 
are those abroad who are doing their utmost to disprove it, 
and that if there were any flaw in the evidence, it would be 
detected and proclaimed. 

To attach secular advantages and disabilities to the pro- 
fession or rejection of truth, is to superadd to the difficulties 
already in the way of an unbiassed judgment, the gratuitous, 
and still greater, hindrance of the dread of the imputation of 
unworthy and interested motives. 

The kind of sovereignty which a political community pos- 
sesses, and in which the exercise of coercive power is implied, 
as its proper and main object, is the very circumstance which 



104 THE SPIRIT OF PERSECUTION. 

places beyond its proper province the very highest and noblest 
object of all. Pure morality, as existing in the motives, and 
sincere belief in a true religion, are precisely what cannot 
be produced, directly and immediately, by coercive povrer. 
" The quality of mercy is not strained ;" and thus is it also 
with Christian, faith, hope, and charity, and every moral 
virtue. Christianity is a religion of motives ; and Legislative 
Enactments do not control motives. 

Hypocrisy has been styled " the homage which vice renders 
to virtue ;" but if virtue herself could be consulted, she would 
probably think the courteous custom " better honoured in the 
breach than the observance." No man who loves truth him- 
self, can value another's professing truth, which is not truth 
to him. 

An insincere pretender to moral virtue is a better member 
of society, though not a better man, than a barefaced profli- 
gate ; but religious hypocrisy is an unmixed evil, and has no 
countervailing advantage ; since an insincere profession of 
faith benefits no one, and only tends to cast a suspicion, when 
detected, on the sincerity of others. 

Every man's religious persuasion must be defended — and 
can only be defended — by himself. To those who are not 
themselves earnest and vigilant, as no Divine aid is promised, 
so no human aid can be availing. 

In all questions where there is a right or a wrong, several 
different parties cannot be all right. When all are forced 
into agreement on outward submission, what they submit to 
MAY conceivably be right. 



PIOUS FRAUDS. 105 

But suppose it not ? Then all are in the wrong ; and 
truth and right have no chance at all to the end of time. 

It is not given to the generality of men to perceive the 
ultimate inexpediency of coercion in each particular case ; 
and therefore Christianity, often as its name has been 
blazoned on the banners of the persecutor — Christianity, truly 
understood, and honestly applied, is the only permanently 
effectual preventive of the spirit of persecution. 

As the principle of persecution has its source, not in this 
or that doctrinal system, but in human nature, so nothing 
can give security against it but the implantation of Christian 
principle, — that only principle which is able to purify, to 
renovate, to convert that nature ; in short, to create " the 
new man." 



XVIII. Regard to Seeming Expediency. 

1. Pious Frauds. 2. Reserve and double Doctrine. 3. 
Modern Theory of Development. 

1. Pious Frauds. 

The greatest obstacle to the following of truth, is the 
tendency to look, in the first instance, to the expedient. 

The votary of a religion built' on faith in the truth ought 
to adhere scrupulously to truth, in the means he employs in 
the furtherance of it, as well as the end he proposes, and to 
follow fearlessly wherever truth may lead. 



106 PIOUS FRAUDS. 

' He may be a sincere believer in the usefulness of wbat lie 
advocates, who yet may not be a believer in its truth, 

' Honesty is the best policy ;" but he who acts on that 
principle is not an honest man. 

To make expediency the road to truth, is the sin which 
most easily besets the instructor of others ; and the more 
easily, because he that does not begin by teaching what he 
thoroughly believes, will speedily end by believing what he 
teaches. 

The fullest conviction of the truth of the cause in which 
we may be engaged, is no security against our sliding into 
falsehood ; unless we are sedulous in forming and cherishing 
a habit of loving, and renouncing, and strictly adhering to, 
truth. 

That union of conscientiousness in respect of the end, and 
unscrupulous dishonesty as to the means, which constitutes 
what is called "a pious fraud," is not peculiar to the mem- 
bers of any church ; is not peculiar to an erroneous belief as 
to what is a good end ; is not peculiar to any sect, age, or 
country — to any subject-matter, religious or secular, but is 
the spontaneous growth of the corrupt soil of man's heart. 

It is important to remember that pious frauds fall naturally 
into two classes of positive and negative : the one, the intro- 
duction and propagation of what is false ; the other, the 
mere toleration of it. A plant may be in a garden from 
two causes, cither from being planted designedly, or being 
found there and left there. In either case some degree of 
approbation is implied. He Avho propagates a delusion, 



PIOUS FEAUDS. 107 

and he who connives at it, when already existing, both alike 
tamper Avitli truth. 

We must neither lead, nor leave, men to mistake falsehood 
for truth. 

The giving, or not correcting, false reasons for right con- 
clusions — false grounds for right belief — false principles for 
right practice ; the holding forth, or fostering, false consola- 
tions, false encouragements, and false sanctions, or conniving 
at their being held forth or believed, are all pious frauds. 

When men cannot, or will not, admit sound arguments for 
a true conclusion, to give them unsound ones, is like the 
countervailing fraud of meeting an unjust demand of a debt, 
never incurred, by forging a receipt. 

Some men, provided others come to a right conclusion, 
care not how they come at it. 

Nothing is more common among the indolent and thought- 
less, than to resort to falsehood as a compendious way of 
managing and controlling children, of evading disagreeable 
questions, and satisfying their doubting minds ; thus serving 
a present turn at the expense, not only of veracity, but of 
tenfold ultimate inconvenience to those who employ the arti- 
fice, and of moral injury to the deceived. As reasonably 
might one expect habits of neatness from one who has been 
reared in a pig-sty with swine, as a frank, open, unsuspicious 
love of truth from him, who has been made first the dupe, 
and, afterwards, the imitator of falsehood. 

The pious fraud which leads, or leaves men to look for 
temporal rewards and punishments as the sanctions of a re- 



108 PIOUS FRAUDS. 

ligion the Author and Finisher of which was crucified, and 
His disciples persecuted, must have as its natural consequence 
the producing a general distrust of Providence, when it is 
found that pestilences, shipwrecks, conflagrations, &c., make 
no distinction between the pious and the impious. 

To say anything, however true of itself, of which we have 
not a hearty conviction at the moment, breeds a habit of 
insincerity. 

He who accustoms himself to dispense with complete sin- 
cerity, for the sake of supposed utility, and to support true 
conclusions by any premises that offer, will soon lose the 
power of distinguishing what conclusions are true. 

Those who accommodate Christianity to corrupt human 
nature, instead of gaining those whom they strive to conciliate, 
are in danger of losing their own faith. They are like the 
man who boasted of having " caught a Tartar," when the fact 
was that the Tartar had caught him. 

To advance false premises, no matter how true the conclu- 
sion may be to which they lead, or knowingly adduce unsound 
arguments, however important may be the conviction to be 
produced by them, is an affront put on the Spirit of truth ; 
a hiring of the Syrians to fight the battles of the Lord God 
of Israel. 

No mixture of evil is ever necessary for any really good 
purpose ; and those who act as if it were, are really doing 
evil that good may come. 

That is a dangerous cant, now-a-days heard so often — 
" I'here is 8ome truth in so and so ; and therefore it is the 



RESERVE AND DOUBLE DOCTRINE. 109 

mission of him who holds it, tlioiigli mixed with much error, 
to propagate the belief of his doctrines." Some truth ! yes ; 
the serpent had some truth in what he said ; the forbidden 
tree was a tree of knowledge. And there was some truth in 
Eve's reflections. It was " pleasant to the eye" and desira- 
ble " to make one wise." Here was the love of the beautiful 
and of knowledge in the very first sin which was committed. 

The much that is good and true in any system, only enables 
the much that is evil and false to gain the greater currency. 

Many have ^ begun in wilful deceit to end in superstitious 
belief. They first themselves shape " the image of the beast," 
and then apply to the false prophet to make it " speak and 
live." The very curse sent on those who do not love the 
truth is that of " strong delusion that they should believe a 
lie." 



XVIII. Eegard to Seeming Expediency. 

2. Reserve and double Doctrine. 

As the true sense of each word is that which is understood 
by it, (otherwise language would completely fail of the very 
object for which language exists, — viz., to convey an intelli- 
gible meaning,) it cannot make any diiference in point of 
veracity, whether a man says that which is untrue in every 
sense, or that which, though in a certain sense true, yet is 
false in the sense in which he knows it will be understood. 

How incalculable is the injury to the cause of truth, from 
that system of reserve and double doctrine, which adopts and 
10 



110 RESEKVE AND DOUBLE DOCTRINE. 

avows the principle that a man " may say one thing while he 
aims at accomplishing a dijfferent thing ;" that he " may make 
belief it is " bread" he is showing, when, as the saying is, it 
is really a " stone ;" that " he may say what looks like truth, 
rather than what is true;" that "he may take all words in 
difterent senses, and take any sense for the purpose of vic- 
tory." The exhibition of such Jesuitical morality, which 
makes pious fraud consistent with Christian virtue, is likely 
to endanger the faith both of those who are, and of those who 
are not, themselves of an open and honest disposition. Those 
who have a disdain of every kind of disingenuousness and 
double dealing, will turn in indignant disgust from the Gos- 
pel, against which their moral sentiments will have thus been 
excited ; and this in proportion as these sentiments are just, 
and elevated, and pure. And though their procedure is 
indeed justly censurable, in not examining for themselves 
what the religion is before they reject it ; yet this does not 
lessen the responsibility of those who place such a stumbling- 
block in another's path. " Woe unto that man by whom the 
offence cometh." And those again of a lower tone of morality, 
who confine the term "vice" to intemperate sensuality and 
the like (which though the Tempter is ready to seduce men 
into, are yet not so truly parts of his own character, not so 
completely satanic as falsehood and fraud) will be encouraged 
to make profession of what they do not believe, and of what 
they suspect their teachers to believe as little. 

The dishonesty of a double meaning, a design hidden, 
while apparently disavowed, in order to serve a present pur- 
pose, is akin to the stratagem of the ancient architect em- 
ployed by one of the Ptolemies to build a magnificent light- 
house ; and who, being ordered to put thereon an inscription 
iii honour of the king, and coveting such a record for him- 



RESERVE AND DOUBLE DOCTRINE. Ill 

self, made the inscription on a plaister resembling stone, but 
of perishable substance ; so that the next generation saw 
another inscription recording the name, not of the king, but 
of the architect which had been secretly engraved on the 
durable stone below. 

To perceive and censure the disingenuousness of the system 
of Reserve, and yet continue to speak of its advocates vrith 
admiration and gratitude, for their alleged services to the 
Church in respect of certain rites and forms, is to become a 
wilful abettor of known falsehood; and to make the "tithes 
of mint, and rue, and cummin," a kind of set-off against the 
neglect of " the weightier matters of the law" — against moral 
as well as doctrinal taint. 

The advocates of Reserve among us, who speak of an ordi- 
nary reader being likely to "miss their real meaning by not 
being "aware of the peculiar sense in which they employ 
terms," are not without their counterparts. The German 
Transcendentalists, whoso system of Theology, or rather of 
Atheology, is little else than a new edition of the Pantheism 
of the ancient Heathen Philosophers, of the Brahmins, and 
the Buddhists, use a similar double-meaning language. 
They profess to believe that Christianity came from God, in 
the same sense in which everytlnng comes from God ; they 
teach the incarnation, explaining to the initiated that this 
means the presence of the Deity, i. e., of the " spiritual 
principle" which pervades the universe, — the God of Pan- 
theism in man generally, as well as in all other animals ; and 
they profess a belief in man's immortality — that is, that the 
human species will never become extinct, &c. Let any one 
compare together these two systems, (if indeed they are to 
be reckoned as two,) and say, whether there is any greater 



112 RESEEVE AND DOUBLE DOCTRINE. 

violence done to the ordinary sense of tvords hy the one than 
hy the other ; and what limit is there to sucli insincerity ? 
Even supposing, therefore, that all the disciples of the school 
in question do inwardly believe in the truth of Christianity, 
they cannot give any sufficient assurance that they do so. 
A suppression of Gospel truth is virtually a falsification 
of it. 

There is a gradual instruction by which a judicious teacher 
imparts knowledge with due regard to the age, understanding, 
previous acquirements, opportunities, and other circumstances 
of the learners, in proportion as they are able to bear it ; 
knowing that, practically speaking, all truth is relative, and 
that a statement of any doctrine true to one man, may, in 
effect, be false to another if it be such as cannot but lead him 
to form false notions. This gradual instruction is not to be 
confounded with the system of withholding any portion of 
God's truth from those able and willing to receive it — the 
system of shunning to " declare the whole counsel of God;" 
the '^double doctrine," the suppression or "Reserve" of the 
fundamental truths of Christianity, as a secret to be imparted 
only to a select few, and to be kept back from the great mass 
of the people. 

He who does not teach all men as well as he can, acts as 
if he vfere the steward not "of the mysteries of God" but 
of his own. 

It is important to observe that wherever Paul characterizes 
the Christian religion, or any part of it by the word 

"Mystery," he is directing attention not to the concealment 
but the disclosure of the mystery, and conveying the idea 
that it is something which "now is made manifest," and 



EESERVE AND DOUBLE DOCTEINB. 113 

which we are therefore called upon to contemplate and study, 
even at his office was " to make known the mystery of the 
Gospel." Not that he meant to imply that we are able fully 
to understand the Divine dispensations ; but it is not in re- 
ference to this, their inscrutable character, that he calls them 
mysteries, not so far forth as they are hidden and unintel- 
ligible ; but so far as they are revealed and explained. 

God has not authorized man to suppress any part of what 
He has revealed ; and it is impious presumption even to en- 
quire into the expediency of such a procedure. 

The advocates of Reserve in teaching appeal to our Lord's 
example, who, they say, taught openly in parables, and ex- 
pounded those parables only to His own disciples. But this 
can be no justification of it, when it is remembered that our 
Lord concealed the meaning of His parables only from those 
who, with the evidence of His miracles before them, refused 
to acknowledge Him as a "teacher sent from God;" while it 
is from Christian men — from those who have enrolled them- 
selves already as His disciples — that the full explanation of 
some of the essential doctrines of His religion is withheld by 
this system. But even such concealment as He practised 
was not to continue longer than the period of His own per- 
sonal ministry, for He expressly commands, "What I tell 
you in darkness, that speak ye in light : and what ye hear in 
the ear, that preach ye upon the house-tops." 

It must not be forgotten that though the Divine Author 
and Finisher of our faith said, " I have yet many things to 
say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now ;" yet He did, by 
His Spirit, gradually impart this knowledge, not to some 
subsequent generation, but to those very individuals. And 
10* 



114 RESERVE AND DOUBLE DOCTRINE. 

in that -which Paul says, " I have fed you with milk, and not 
with meat : for hitherto ye were not a,hle to bear it : neither 
yet now are ye able ;" he evidently implies a hope that they 
— those very individuals — will be able to bear it. The very 
similitude of hahes, indeed, of itself draws our attention, our 
hopes, and our endeavours towards a progressive growth into 
manhood. 

The Great Teacher knew indeed what portion of His truth 
is exactly suited for each generation of mankind ; and when, 
and how far, imperfect knowledge may be given, without 
necessarily leading those who receive it into error. But with 
us it is otherwise. We are in the condition of ignorant men 
to whom some sage physician has imparted, for the benefit 
of others, a medicine curiously compounded according to 
rules of art with which we are unacquainted. Is it not mad- 
ness, then, to say, that because the physician himself has 
formerly in his own practice, when dealing with other pa- 
tients, sometimes omitted some of the ingredients of that 
medicine, therefore, we are justified in leaving out some part 
of the compound when we please, and yet still calling it his 
remedy ? The medicine, surely, may be as much changed 
by omitting some ingredients as by adding others. 

To postpone, sine die, the communication of religious 
knowledge, on the plea that men, through ignorance, weak- 
ness, or prejudice, are not yet ripe for it, is to expect them to 
become ripe, like the fruits of the earth, by mere waiting. 

The teacher who, while holding himself bound not to add 
on to Scripture anything he does not believe to be true, hesi- 
tates not to suppress any portion of Gospel truth at his 
pleasure, misplaces his scruple as absurdly as the man who 



RESERVE AND DOUBLE DOCTRINE. 115 

would not worship a moulded image, though he would a 
sculptured one, as not contemplated in the commandment 
against making an image, because it is not "made;" the 
artist having added nothing, but merely taken away. 

For all the consequences of what God has been pleased to 
do, man is not responsible ; but man i§ responsible for all the 
consequences of what he presumes to do in altering His 
arrangements. 

He who holds the double doctrine, the esoteric and exoteric, 
professing the principle that it is allowable and right to have 
one Gospel for the mass of the people, and another for the 
initiated few, and is believed in that profession, need not 
wonder to find that he is thenceforward believed in nothing 
else. Let it be once understood that a man wears a mask, 
all persons Avill form their own conjectures as to what is 
under it. 

Those who imagine that the scholastic divinity, in which 
are things quite beyond the mass of the people, and which it 
would be utterly idle even to attempt to teach them, is an es- 
sential part of the Gospel, will not easily avoid being forced to 
allow the necessity of a double doctrine. Bnt this is rather 
another reason for condemning all presumptuous speculations 
and metaphysical theories of Christianity — all of them equally ; 
for there is nothing more characteristic of the Gospel dis- 
pensation than its oneness — one Lord, one faith, one hope, 
— in short, one and the same Gospel, proposed to the poor, 
and to the learned, to all who will heartily receive it — "I 
thank Thee, Father," said our Lord, "that Thou hast hid 
these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed 
them unto babes." And again, He says to the humble fisher- 



116 RESERVE AND DOUBLE DOCTRINE. 

men who followed Him, "Many prophets and kings have 
desired to hear those things which ye hear, and have not 
heard them. ' And what they did hear and learn from Him 
in private, those things He charged them to publish from 
"the house-tops." 

It is a point of the highest importance, towards our belief 
in the Christian religion, that we should regard it as suited 
to all mankind, because otherwise it cannot be a true revela- 
tion. The systems of Aristotle or Plato, of Newton or 
Locke, may, conceivably, be very true, although the mass of 
mankind cannot comprehend them, because they were never 
intended for the mass of mankind : but Jesus Himself did 
certainly intend His religion for high and low, rich and poor ; 
for His command was to "go preach the Gospel to every 
creature," and He applied to His mission the prophecy, "To 
the poor the gospel is preached;" and therefore, if it be not 
one which the lower ranks of society are capable of embracing, 
He, the founder of it, must have been mistaken in his calcu- 
lation — must have been ignorant, either of the character of 
His own religion, or of the nature of man ; which would of 
course imply that he could not have been Divinely inspired. 

That system of "Reserve," which teaches that the doc- 
trine of the Atonement, the divinity of Christ, and other fun- 
damental parts of the Gospel, should be kept back from the 
mass of the people, has no sanction whatever from the Scrip- 
tures. For whatever Paul does mean by "the wisdom" which 
he spoke among the perfect," or "the strong meat" which 
he did not give to babes, he certainly does not mean these 
essential doctrines ; since he fully propounds these doctrines 
in the very epistles from which these passages are cited. In 
the first Epistle to the Corinthians, for example, he expressly 



KESERVE AND DOUBLE DOCTRINE. 117 

tells US that, among those who were "jet carnal," and whom 
he had fed with milk, he had " determined not to know any- 
thing save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified,'" and that he had 
" delivered unto them first of all that Christ died for our 
sins ; and, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, he insists largely 
upon the divinity of Christ to those whom he, at the same 
time, declares to be such as "have need of milk, and not of 
strong meat. Indeed, so plainly are these doctrines set forth 
in the Scriptures, that it is only by abstaining from the reading 
of them that it is possible to keep them out of sight. And 
therefore the system of "Reserve" has a great tendency to 
discourage the study of the Bible. Men may succeed in per- 
suading others to keep back something of the counsel of 
God ; but as long as the Apostles and Evangelists are per- 
mitted to bear their testimony, we shall still find them 
preaching without reserve Christ crucified, and such preach- 
ing will still be " a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are 
saved, and in them that perish;" and we shall have to meet 
them "witnessing to small and great," and plainly setting 
the whole truth before all men, " whether they will hear, or 
whether they will forbear." May every Christian teacher, 
who loves the truth, go and do likewise. 

The preaching of the truth will not produce its appropriate 
effects, unless the whole truth is preached, as well as nothing 
but the truth. 



118- MODERN THEOEY OF DEVELOPMENT. 

XVIII. Regard to Seeming Expediency. 
^. Modern Theory of Development. 

In its etymological sense, truth signiiSes that which the 
speaker "trows" or believes to be the fact; and therefore it 
has been contended that it is idle to speak of eternal or im- 
mutable truth. Upon this ground, it would be just as absurd 
to speak of sending a letter by the " post," because a post 
in its primary sense is a pillar ; or to admit that " syco- 
phant" can ever mean anything but "fig-shower." 

The character of the Gospel is " the same yesterday, to- 
day, and for ever." 

Temporary or local circumstances are the cause, not of 
any article being, or not being, a part of the Christian 
faith ; but of its being a part which it is needful, or not 
needful, to set forth prominently. 

A modern use of the word " inspiration" is very large, in- 
deed, in its application ; so large that a person who did not 
scruple using it in the sense thus given to it, might turn 
Robinson Crusoe, or the Arabian Nights, into allegories 
about religion, and then speak of them as " divinely in- 
spired ;" meaning that they might be made to afford religious 
instruction, and were providentially so written as to be 
capable of that particular application, though it was never 
intended by the writers. Now people will be apt to suspect 
that those who speak of "the whole Bible" as "one great 
pa^rable," to be expounded mystically and allegorically, even 
in the plainest narratives and arguments, and as having as 



MODERN THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT. 119 

many meanings as a "pious" fancy can find for its words; 
— do in reality entertain, at bottom, much the same opinion 
of Scripture as of Rooinson Crusoe, or the Arabian NigJds. 
For any book at all may be made to yield a profitable mean- 
ing, if we ourselves first put that meaning into it, and choose 
to consider it as " a great parable" of something that we 
have not learned from it, but have knoAvn already by some 
other means. 

There are many now who, while professing belief in the 
Divinity of Christianity, yet mix up with it other ideas 
which virtually nullify that belief. " Christ," they will say, 
" was an inspired prophet, and so was Mahomet, and Dante, 
and Luther, and Milton, and a multitude of others. They 
had all the Divine spark within them — all had great missions 
to accomplish," &c. And thus the ideas of genius and of 
Divine inspiration are confused together ; and by raising 
others to the level of the Founder of our faith, they virtually 
degrade Him. They thus imitate the trick of Morgiana in 
the Forty Thieves, who, when she perceived one door marked 
with red chalk, immediately marked all those on each side, 
so that the mark ceased to be a distinction. 

Erratum in some Modern Theories : — for development of 
gospel-scheme, read depravation — human additions to a 
divine revelation. 

To Christianity, as a revelation complete in our Sacred 
Books, both the Neologist and the Tractite, more or less 
openly, confess their objection. 

The Christian religion is an historical religion, not merely 
connected with, but founded on, certain recorded events — 



120 MODERN THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT. 

the birth, life, death, and resurrection of the Saviour, the 
pouring out of His spirit, &c. Strictly speaking, the Gos- 
pel is the annunciation of what God has done for man. The 
Lord Jesus accomplished what He left His apostles to tes- 
tify of, and to explain ; He offered up Himself on the cross 
that they might teach the atoning virtue of His sacrifice ; He 
rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, that they 
might declare the great mystery of His divine and human 
nature, and preach that faith in Him by which His followers 
hope to be raised and to reign with Him. 

The Mosaic Dispensation was the dawn of " the day-spring 
from on high," not yet arrived — of a sun only about to rise : 
it was a revelation in itself imperfect. The sun of the Gos- 
pel arose, — " the True Light, which lighteth every man that 
cometh into the world," appeared; but it was partially 
hidden, and is so still, by a veil of clouds, — by prejudices of 
various kinds, — by the passions, and infirmities, and igno- 
rance of mankind. We may advance, and we may lead 
others to advance, indefinitely, in full development of Gospel 
truth, — of the real character and meaning and design of 
Christ's religion ; not by seeking to superadd something to 
the Gospel-revelation, but by a more correct and fuller com- 
prehension of it ; not by increasing absolutely the light of 
the noon-day sun, but by clearing away the mists w^hich 
obscure our view. Christianity itself cannot be improved ; 
but men's views and estimate, and comprehension of Chris- 
tianity, may be indefinitely improved. 

Increased understanding of the written Word, a more and 
more full development of what the Evangelists and Apostles 
have conveyed to us, are to be attained without adding to the 
Gospel. But we cannot be too much on our guard against 



MODERN THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT. 121 

the delusions of those avIio go so far as to represent the 
Revelation of the Christian scheme, contained in the New 
Testament, as a mere imperfect and uncompleted outline ; 
and who, while exulting in their imagined progress in Chris- 
tian knowledge through a fancied development, are, in 
reality, straying into other paths, and following a bewildering 
meteor. 

To take (as proposed by Coleridge) a man's feeling of the 
suitableness of Christianity to his wants, not as a confirma- 
tion of other evidences of the religion, but as a complete 
substitute for them, is to forget that, doubtless, many of the 
Mahometans perceived this suitableness in their own religion, 
and many of the Hindoos in theirs. The grossest supersti- 
tions have often proved satisfying and soothing to the igno- 
rant devotee. No corrupt religion could ever have arisen at 
all, or have been received, if those who introduced it, and 
their followers, had not found a " want" of some such system. 

Those modern theorists who rest all on subjective feelings 
and inward emotions, to the exclusion of objective evidence — 
who make the truth of Christianity dependent upon the sub- 
jective suitability, and not on the objective credibility, of the 
Revelation, should be reminded that this is not only a setting 
up of each man for himself to be the standard of divine truth, 
but that, as respects the taste and the wants upon the suita- 
bility to which the evidence of the Gospel is made to depend, 
the wants are such as are made known to us by the Gospel 
only ; and the taste such as the Gospel does not usually 
find, but implant in the human mind. 

The subjective evidences of Christianity are indeed a con- 
firmation, but a confirmation rather the reward of faith, 
11 



122 MODERN THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT. 

accompanied by obedience, than the foundation on which to 
build it. " If any man ivill do his will, he shall know of the 
doctrine whether it be of God." 

That kind of evidence which all Christians ought to have, 
that the Gospel does meet the nature and the real wants of 
man, is obtained not by rejecting evidence, and resolving to 
conform their religious belief to their own tastes and inclina- 
tions ; but, on the contrary, by striving to conform their own 
tastes and inclinations to their religious belief. 

Suppose some one should offer to several persons, suffering 
under a painful and dangerous disease, some medicine which 
he declared would relieve their sufferings, and restore them 
to health ; it would be natural and reasonable for them to 
ask for some testimony or other proof, to assure them of this, 
before they made trial of the medicine : then, suppose them 
to be so far convinced, — some by one proof, and some by 
another, — as to make trial of the medicine ; and that they 
found themselves daily getting better as they took it : they 
would then have — all of them — an evidence from experience, 
confirming the former proofs that had originally brought 
them to make the trial. Just so, different persons may have 
been led by different kinds of proof to embrace the Gospel ; 
but when, they have embraced it, they may all hope for this 
confirmation of their faith, by the further proof from expe- 
rience. 

But — to use the same comparison — as those persons who 
had taken the medicine, if they were wise, would be con- 
vinced of its virtues, not from its being immediately pleasant 
to the taste, or from its suddenly exciting and cheering them 
up, like a strong cordial ; but from its gradually restoring 
their strength, and removing the symptoms of the disease, 



MODERN THEOEY OF DEVELOPMENT. 123 

and advancing them daily towards perfect health ; so also 
Christian experience does not consist in violent transports, 
or any kind of sudden or overpowering impressions on the 
feelings, though such may be experienced ; but in a steady, 
habitual, and continual improvement of the heart and the 
conduct. And this is the Christian experience alluded to in 
the New Testament Scriptures ; which thus aflford an addi- 
tional internal evidence of these having been written by 
sober-minded men. For the test they refer to is " a growth 
in grace and knowledge," — a "bringing forth fruit with 
patience." For "patience," says St. Paul, "worketh 
experience ; and experience, hope : and hope maketh not 
ashamed ; because the love of God is shed abroad in our 
hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." 

To say that Conscience, and not Reason, is the judge of 
truth in religious matters, is to forget that since men really 
cannot believe or disbelieve without something that comes 
before the mind as proof, the first dictate of a sound con- 
science would be to examine that evidence carefully, lest w^e 
should be deceived; so that following Conscience in this 
sense would come to the same thing as following Reason. 
But what some modern teachers mean by Conscience is cer- 
tain " feelings of awe, and reverence, and admiration," 
which they are pleased to call by that name ; and the course 
which they mean to recommend is taking for evidence of the 
truth of a religious system its apparent fitness for gratifying 
such feelings, flinging yourself into it with unhesitating 
trust ; and, if found to fail in satisfying your religious senti- 
ments, then, and not till then, another is to be tried. But 
what is the meaning of all this ? You are to pass en, it 
seems, from one to another and a higher system ; but still the 
moral and religious feelings may be, and probably are, but 



124 THE TKUE ALONE THE EXPEDIENT. 

imperfectly developed. The infant judge of truth may have 
cast off its swaddling-bands, and yet be only in short coats. 
In a third stage, it may gain more manly attire ; and yet, 
even after that, a thousand more seemly forms of clothing 
may await its growing limbs. Who knows but in the end it 
may outgrow them all ? Naked it came forth from its 
mother's womb, and naked it may return. May not, if these 
notions be correct, Pantheism or Atheism be the final issue 
(as we know it actually has been in many instances) of such 
a development of man's moral and religious feelings ? 

We cannot hope for the Apostle's consolatory trust of 
being "free from the blood of all men," unless, like him, we 
declare "the whole counsel of God," and nothing as a part 
of the Christian faith, hut the counsel of God. 



The True alone the Expedient. 

So long as we acknowledge truth to be in itself stronger 
than falsehood, it can never be true expediency to resort to 
any means that, by tending to put them on a level, must be 
on the whole less favourable to the cause of truth than of 
error. 

The erroneousness of the views which fraud or force 
is used to oppose, or the soundness of those that either is 
used to support, does not lessen the danger or the evil of cm- 
ploying it. "Will ye," says Job, "speak wickedly for 
God? and talk deceitfully for Him?" 



THE TRUE ALONE THE EXPEDIENT. 125 

Nothing but the right can ever be the expedient, since 
that can never be true expediency -VYhicli Vv^oukl sacrifice a 
greater good to a less, — " For what shall it fvofit a man, if 
he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" 

The good effects resulting, at least, apparently resulting, 
from every false system, have a continual and rapid tendency 
towards decay ; while the evil fruits are borne in continually 
increasing profusion, and with more and more of poisonous 
luxuriance. 

All frauds, like the " wall daubed with untempered 
mortar," with which men think to buttress up an edifice, 
always tend to the decay of the system they are devised to 
support. 

It is only to the pure in heart who love truth for its own 
sake, that it is given to see its expediency. 

The maxim that " Honesty is the best policy" can never 
be to any one the habitual and constant guide of conduct. 
He who is honest is always before it ; and he who is not, will 
often be far behind it. 

The expediency of truth can be estimated by few, but its 
intrinsic loveliness by all who, in undoubting faith and firm 
reliance on their great Master, reject disguise, and sophistry, 
and equivocation, at once, as hateful to Him ; and who, as 
becomes Christian faith, walk boldly forward in the path of 
duty, though the point to which it leads may not be percep- 
tible at every turn ; looking for all needful aid to that sanc- 
tifying, and enlightening, and supporting grace, which alone 
can raise to life "the dead in sin," and purify man's corrupt 



126 THE TRUE ALONE THE EXPEDIENT. 

nature, and effectually open his eyes to the truth, and cause 
him to receive " the truth in the love of it ;" and strengthen 
the feeble knees to walk in the way of truth. 

Courage, liberality, activity, and other good qualities are 
often highly prized by those who do not possess them in any 
great degree ; but the zealous thorough-going love of truth 
is not very much admired, or liked, or indeed understood, 
except by those who possess it. There is nothing "covered," 
however, that shall not be "revealed," nor "hid," that shall 
not be "known;" and He to whom all hearts are open shall 
one day, by the brightness of His presence, clear away all 
obscurity, and dispel all falsehood and delusion ; and the 
genuine and fearless lover of truth, who has sought not " the 
praise of men," but the praise of God who seeth in secret, 
shall be sanctified through His truth here, and by Him be 
rewarded openly hereafter. 



ON THE MORAL FACULTY. 



The able and celebrated Dr. Paley, "witli other writers 
not few or obscure, maintains that man has no moral faculty 
•whatever, feels naturally no disapprobation of ingratitude or 
approbation of gratitude, nor perceives any distinction 
between virtue and vice. All our notions, according to 
Paley, of what is called moral obligation, are derived from 
conformity to the will of a superior Being, with a view solely 
to our own eventual interest. And the distinction, accord- 
ingly, between what are commonly called moral precepts — 
things commanded because right — and positive precepts — 
things right because commanded — he completely does away. 
Now this notion that the commands of God, as delivered in 
Scripture, are the sole foundation of morality — the reference 
to the Divine will, the only standard of right and wrong — 
tends inevitably to derogate from God's honour, and to de- 
prive the Christian revelation of its just evidence. Since to 
praise the pure morality of the Gospel, if the Gospel itself 
be the source from which we derive all our ideas of morality, 
is merely attributing to the Gospel the praise of being con- 
formable to the rules derived from itself; and to call the will 
of God right and good, if our original ideas of righteousness 
and goodness imply a conformity to the divine will ; is, in 
fact, no more than saying, that the will of God is the will of 
God. And this renders one, in particular, of our Lord's de- 
clarations, and a most important one, unintelligible and 
utterly absurd. " The servant who knevr not His Lord's 



128 ON THE MORAL FACULTY. 

■will, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten 
•with few stripes." For, while most persons would readily 
understand the rule, that he who linew His Lord's vail, and 
did it not, should receive heavier punishment ; the rule that 
one who "knew not his Lord's will," i. e., who had not re- 
ceived any express command, could commit things worthy 
of stripes, is utterly inconceivable on the su]3position of 
men's notions of right and wrong being derived originally 
and entirely from a knowledge of the will of God. They are 
indeed derived from His will in the true sense that it was 
His will to create man a being endowed with a moral 
faculty. 

God has not revealed to us in the Scriptures a system of 
morality such as would have been needed for beings who had 
no other means of distinguishing right and wrong. On the 
contrary, the inculcation of virtue and reprobation of vice in 
Scripture, are in such a tone as seems to pre-suppose a natu- 
ral power, or a capacity for acquiring the power, to distinguish 
them. And if a man, denying or renouncing all claims of 
natui'al conscience, should practise without scruple everything 
he did not find expressly forbidden in Scrijature, and think 
himself not bound to do anything that is not there expressly 
enjoined, exclaiming at every turn, 

" Is it so written in the Bond ?'' 

he would be leading a life very unlike what a Christian 
should be. 

There is no moral formula more frequently cited, and with 
more deserved admiration, than that maxim, of doing to 
others as we would have them do to us ; and, as Paley ob- 
serves, no one probably ever was in practice led astray by 



ON TUB MORAL FACULTY. 129 

it. Yet if we imagine this maxim placed before a being des- 
titute of all moral faculty, and attempting to learn, from 
this, what morality is, lie would evidently interpret it as im- 
plying, tliat we are to do wliatever we should wish for, if in 
another's place ; which would lead to innumerable absurdi- 
ties, and in many cases to absolute impossibilities ; since, in 
many cases, our conduct will affect two or more parties, 
whose wishes are at variance with each other. A judge, for 
instance, before whom there might be a cause to be tried, 
would feel that both parties wished, each, for a decision in 
his own favour ; which Avould be manifestly impossible. But, 
in practice, every one feels that what he is bound to do, is 
not necessarily what would be agreeable to his mcUnations, 
were he in the other's place, but what he would think he 
might justly and reasonably expect. Now this very circum- 
stance implies his having already a notion of Avhat is just 
and reasonable. The use he is to make of the formula, is, 
not for the acquiring of these general principles, but for the 
application of them, in those cases where self-interest would 
be the most likely to blind him. And so as regards moral 
conduct generally, our Lord and His apostles do, indeed, 
warn men against the particular faults to which they are es- 
pecially liable, and urge on them the practice of whatever 
duties they were the most likely to neglect : they bring for- 
ward strong motives for holiness of life such as no human 
systems or precepts could afford, and they hold out promises 
of such heaven-sent support and aid as human weakness 
needs ; but they always evidently proceed on the supposition 
that men do use (and always have used) such words as 
"virtue" and "vice," and have always attached some mean- 
ing to those words, and understand that the one is preferable 
to the other. 



130 ON THE MORAL PACULTY. 

Dr. Paley makes all our ideas of tlie difference between 
virtue and vice consist in this, that the one will be rewarded 
and the other punished bj the Almighty in the next world, 
and the only influencing consideration to an act of prudence 
or virtue to be our gain or loss. And he goes on to say, 
that those who have no knowledge or belief of a future state, 
must frame the best theory of virtue they can for themselves, 
unless they can show that virtue produces the greatest 
amount of happiness in this Avorld. This is to say that sin 
does not lead to suffering because it is sin, but that it is sin 
because it leads to suffering; and it follows that the igno- 
rance or disbelief of a future state not only absolves from all 
moral obligation, but destroys even the very idea of moral 
obligation, resolving it all into submission from views of self- 
interest, to arbitrary, physical force. And this theory does 
away with vfhat, in a great degree, distinguishes man from 
the brute creation. For on this supposition, the brutes, as 
capable of being incited by reward and deterred by punish- 
ment, would be as much moral agents as man. And yet no 
one thinks of applying the terms "sin" or "crime" to a 
brute, any more than we apply the term " folly" to the acts 
of animals destitute of reason. But in truth, as Bishop 
Butler has justly remarked, " What renders any one justly 
liable to punishment, is not the expectation of it, but the 
violation of a known duty," 

So far is the Moral Faculty from being anything hostile 
to religion, or a pretended substitute for it, that, on the 
contrary, it is by this only that it is possible to perceive that 
God is not merely a ruler, who is able to enforce obedience, 
but who is justly entitled to obedience, and a proper object 
of our gratitude and love. Had man no natural principle of 
preference for benevolence rather than malice, and had he 



ON THE MORAL PACULTY. 131 

been left to derive from a bare contemplation of tlio created 
universe liis notions of the moral attributes of the Deity, he 
could not come to the conclusion that God is infinitely benevo- 
lent. The admixture of evil in His works, which we cannot 
account for, would stand in the way of such a conclusion. If 
man really were a being destitute- of all moral sentiment — all 
innate and original admiration for goodness, he would in that 
case be more likely to come to the conclusion (as many of 
the heathens seem actually to have done) that the Deity was 
a being of a mixed or of a capricious nature ; an idea which, 
shocking as it is to every well-constituted mind, would not 
be so in the least to such a mind as this supposition, of the 
destitution of this moral sentiment, attributes to the whole 
human race. To illustrate this argument a little further, let 
us suppose a tasteful architect, and a rude savage, to be both 
contemplating a magnificent building, unfinished, or partially 
fallen to ruin ; the one, not being at all able to comprehend 
the complete design, nor having any taste for its beauties if 
perfectly exhibited, would not attribute any such design to 
the author of it, but would suppose the prostrate columns and 
rough stones to be as much designed as those that were erect 
and perfect : the other would sketch out, in his own mind, 
something like the perfect structure of which he beheld only 
a part ; and though he might not be able to explain how it 
came to be unfinished or decayed, would conclude that some 
such design was in the mind of the builder : though this same 
man, if he were contemplating a mere rude heap of stones 
which bore no marks of design at all, Avould not in that case 
draw such a conclusion. — = So also a friend vv^hose worth and 
discretion we fully rely on, will sometimes adopt a measure 
which, on that very ground, we presume the right one, before 
we have sufficient knowledge of particulars to judge of the 
case itself. But v/e should be surprised to have it inferred 



132 ON THE MORAL FACULTY. 

from this, that our estimate of his character universally, was 
nothing but a blind partiality, and that we had no notion of 
what are good or bad measures, except as they are, or are 
not, his. Nor is there any blameable presumption in the 
creature forming those judgments respecting the moral nature 
of the Creator which He has expressly directed us to form. 
" Are not," says He, " my ways equal ? Are not your ways 
unequal ? And why even of yourselves judge ye not that 
which is right?" 

If there be, independent of revelation, and irrespective of 
the arbitrary will of a Superior Being, no faculty of forming 
any notion of virtue and vice, how did the heathen moralists 
arrive at such as are set forth in Aristotle's Treatise of 
J^tJncs ? The simple fact alone of the existence of this work, 
omitting as it does all mention of future retribution, and all 
reference to the will of the Deity, is sufficient to refute com* 
pletely the assertion, that unassisted reason cannot furnish 
us with any knowledge of duty, and of the distinction between 
right and wrong. 

If the Author of the Universe, and the Author of Chris- 
tianity, the Giver of reason and revelation, be, as we contend, 
the same Being, it is to be expected that the declarations of 
His will, which we meet with in revelation, should corresj)ond 
with the dictates of the highest and most perfect reason ; 
and the testimony of the heathen moralists aifords proof that 
such is the fact : and thus, this conformity of the morality 
of the ancient heathens, in all the most fundamental points, 
to the morality of the Gospel, furnishes an independent and 
unexceptionable testimony in favour of the Gospel. And 
tjiis testimony, drawn from their general coincidence, is still 
more established by their differences in so many points. For 



ON THE MORAL FACULTY. 133 

all the peculiarities of the Gospel-morality appear manifestly, 
on an attentive inspection, to consist not in departures from, 
not in contradiction to, natural morality ; but in the connec- 
tion, completion, and exaltation, of what had been laid down 
by human moralists. As far as any moralist has fallen short 
of the Gospel precepts, or been at variance with them, so 
far has he been inconsistent with his own principles, rightly 
considered and duly followed up. The forgiveness of inju- 
ries might be proved to a candid heathen to be more mag- 
nanimous upon his own principles, than revenge. 

Strong as is the evidence for the truth of Christianity, 
from its general agreement Avith the moral systems which 
men have devised, it is still more confirmed by its disagree- 
ment with all their religious systems. Having the power to 
so great a degree of ascertaining the nature of virtue, and 
its conduciveness to happiness in this life, they would, one 
might have supposed, have been naturally led to conclude, 
that, if the same God be the Author and the Governor of 
this world and the next, such a course of behaviour as, gene- 
rally speaking, leads to the greatest and most exalted enjoy- 
ment, should coincide, in most respects, with that which the 
Deity prescribes as tending to the happiness of the other 
world. Now, as no system of religion devised by man, 
exhibits this conformity, but, on the contrary, prescribes 
means of attaining the favour of the Deity totally uncon- 
nected with, if not wholly adverse to, man's welfare in this 
world; and as in the Christian religion that course of life 
which is most fitted to promote man's welfare in this world, 
is presented as necessary to secure the Divine favour, and 
the promised happiness of the next world ; this alone is a 
presumption that the Author of this world is, indeed, the 
Author of our religion — a presumption strengthened by find- 
12 



134 ON THE MOKAL FACULTY. 

ing, tliat the defect in their religious systems' did not arise 
from their incapacity to perceive the character of virtue, or 
of its tendency to increase human happiness in this life. 

The strong and independent testimony borne to the doc- 
trine that human nature is corrupt, by a comparison of the 
heathen moralists with the heathen historians, turns that 
■which some Christians, as well as infidels, seem to regard as 
one of the burdens which Christianity has to support, into 
one of the bulwarks of evidence which sustain it. When we 
find the very same things which the Bible proclaims as well 
pleasing to God acknowledged by them to be, in themselves, 
right and good, while they also acknowledge man is of him- 
self too weak to practise them, we see man himself bearing 
witness to the purity of the Divine laws, to the corruption of 
his own nature, and to the need he has of a Redeemer and 
Sanctifier ; and when we consider the discrepancy of philo- 
phical principles of morality with the absurdities and wicked- 
ness of the pagan religions, and the agreement of those same 
principles with the precepts of the Gospel (that Gospel which 
was preached by unlearned fishermen), we have the heathens 
themselves testifying, as it were, that their religions do not 
proceed from the God of Nature, and that ours does. 

The deficiency of the heathen systems of morality was in 
their lack of those motives which the Gospel supplies, and of 
that Divine support and aid which is promised to the sincere 
Christian. A heathen moralist was like the fabled Prome- 
theus of old, who is said to have fashioned a complete and 
well-formed human body, but could not endue it with the 
principle of life, till he had gone un to heaven to fetch down 
a vivifying fire from thence. 



ON FAITH AND SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE. 



As there is no inconsistency in that training of a child hy 
a human parent, so there is none in that training, during our 
present state of childhood on earth, by " our Father in 
heaven," which at once encourages profitable enquiry and 
represses impertinent curiosity ; and which, Avhile checking 
indiscriminate credulity, yet requires, in subjects beyond the 
reach of the learner's faculties, implicit faith on suflScient 
authority. 

Those who profess, by simplifying and explaining the mys- 
teries of the Christian religion, to make Faith easy, destroy 
in eifect the very nature of it, considered as a duty; for 
there is surely no virtue in assenting to Euclid's propositions 
or anything demonstrable to the understanding. Such men 
in endeavouring to widen the strait gate, are guilty of much 
the same fault with those who turn aside from it in disgust. 
The latter will not believe what they find it impossible to ex- 
plain ; the former are resolved to explain what they find 
themselves compelled to believe. 

The stamp and outer form of counterfeit and of genuine 
coin are alike — even more alike than two pieces of gold 
stamped difierently; though, inwardly, the base metal and 
the gold differ in the real and essential point. And so it is 
with false and genuine faith. They are very much alike in 
outward semblance; but they differ in this all-important 
point — that false faith is a rash and unreasonable submission 

(135) 



136 ON FAITH AND SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE. 

of the will and understanding to a supposed Divine autho- 
rity ; true faith is a deliberate and rational submission to the 
guidance of an authority, proved by sufficient evidence to be 
Divine. 

He who believes only what he sees, and does only what his 
understanding pronounces to be reasonable in each particular 
command of God, has evidently no faith. One who on a 
dark night at sea fancies he sees land before him, while 
gazing on a fog-bank, should at least not pretend to have as 
much faith in the pilot as one who believes on the pilot's 
word, that the land is near, and does not pretend to see it. 
For "Faith is the evidence of things not seen." 

Faith is, as some have justly expressed it, "the hand with 
which the believer lays hold on the free offers of Divine 
mercy." "By grace are ye saved through faith" is the 
language of the Apostle. " Through faith," not hy faith ; 
for it is plain that if the believer were saved, strictly speak- 
ing, by his faith, he would be himself as much his own 
saviour as if he v/ere saved by his works. And faith must 
be both rightly directed towards the object which wo have 
good grounds for relying on ; and also must be a lively (^. e., 
living) faith, bringing forth good works and necessary fruit. 

The practice of Paul must be strictly conformed to, of 
" comparing spiritual things with spiritual;" and of remem- 
bering that "the natural man receiveth not the things of the 
Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto Him ; neither 
can He know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 

To urge the use and advantage of reason in religious 
enquiry, is not necessarily to imply that there are no secrets 



ON FAITH AND SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE. 137 

in religion wliicli reason alone cannot fully comprehend. As 
mere general intelligence is not sufficient to give a full and 
sufficient appreciation of a poem, or a picture without artis- 
tical or poetical taste, so men of ordinary intelligence may 
understand the great outlines of a doctrine, but unless they 
possess devotional taste, it will be to them a mere outline, a 
skeleton : very correct, perhaps, but wanting life and anima- 
tion. The secret which gives it animation — "the secret of 
the Lord — is with them that fear Him," and, unlike the ar- 
tistical or poetical taste, which is not given to all, this fear 
of the Lord may be possessed by every man, in proportion 
as he himself desires it, in virtue of the gracious promise that 
He will "give His Holy Spirit to them that ask Him." "If 
any man ivill do His will, he shall know of the doctrine 
whether it be of God." . . . 

Though the Divine dispensation of spiritual aid is no 
longer miraculous, the presence of Christ no longer visible, 
for we "walk (wholly) by faith, not by sight," still that aid- 
is not less real, that presence not less abiding. The Spirit 
ever "helpeth our infirmities." Our Divine Master has 
promised to " come unto them that love Him and keep His 
saying," and "to manifest Himself to them." He speaks to 
them, though not in a literally audible voice. He leads 
them, not less really than of old, though not literally, by the 
hand, for "'as many," says the Apostle Paul, "as are led by 
the spirit of God, they are the sons of God." If we look 
earnestly, we shall see Him : if we listen attentively, we 
shall hear His voice. 

It is clear to any one who seeks in earnest to be led by the 
Scriptures, that when our Saviour promises that the Holy 
Spirit, whom the Father should send in Christ's name, should 
1 o * 



138 ON FAITH AND SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE. 

teach them all things and should "abide with" them "for 
ever," — "that Spirit of Truth," whom, He said, they knew, 
" for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you : these words 
of His are not to be explained as relating merely to a system 
of doctrines and motives, — to an abstract religious ijvinciple, 
but to a real, individual, personal agent, operating on the 
minds of believers ; which is called, amidst the diversity of 
operations, one and the same Spirit, not figuratively, as when 
we speak of the spirit of patriotism, the spirit of philosophi- 
cal enquiry, and the like ; but literally and numerically, one 
Being, even the one God whose temple is the whole body of 
the faithful ; which temple they are warned not to " defile, 
lest God destroy" them. For, if any one could even so strain 
this last expression of the Apostle Paul, and likewise all the 
words of Christ Himself, as to interpret them into mere 
metaphor, it would still be impossible for him to conceive a 
mere principle of action — a Ciiristian spirit in that trans- 
ferred sense of the word, — enabling Christians to work 
sensible miraeles ; and these we find distinctly attributed to 
the immediate agency of the Divine Spirit. And these sen- 
sible miracles served to prove, amongst other things, that 
the promised indwelling of the Spirit of Christ in His Church 
was not to be understood as a mere figure of speech, denoting 
their adherence to the doctrines He taught, and the posses- 
sion of the inspired record of them, but a real, though 
unseen presence, by His Spirit ; not the mere keeping of 
His commandments through love for his memory, but a 
spiritual union with Him ; at once the promised reward, and 
the bond and support, of that obedient love, — the effect at 
once and cause of our "keeping His saying." "For if any 
man love Me," said He, "he will keep My saying, and my 
Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make 
our abode with him." >. 



ON FAITH AND SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE. 139 

The influence of the Divine Spirit which our Lord pro- 
mised, is not to be understood as confined to the Apostles 
and other early disciples, or to such miraculous powers as 
were conferred on them. Would Jesus have said in that 
case, " I pray not for them alone, but for those also who 
shall believe on me through their word ?" Or would Paul, 
when writing to the Romans, who had at that time received 
no miraculous gifts, have said " The love of God is shed 
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost ivhich is given unto 
us ;...." as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are 
the sons of God," ..." if so be that the spirit of God dwell 
in you ;" . . . " if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he 
is none of His:" . . . "the Spirit itself beareth witness with 
our spirit :" " Repent and be baptized," said Peter to the 
multitude, " into the name (for so the word should be ren- 
dered) of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sin^, and ye shall 
receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto 
you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, as 
many as the Lord your God shall call." The gift of the 
Holy Spirit, therefore, is held out to all who have been thus 
called ; i. e., have heard the Gospel preached to them, and 
is as efi'ectual for their private individual wants, as the 
miraculous powers bestowed on the Apostles were for the 
wants of the infant-church. To each of us is promised, no 
less the far more important benefit of the inward comfort, — 
the guidance, the spiritual sanctification of heart, which every 
man needs, and of which every Christian is invited to par- 
take. The necessity of miraculous evidences to establish our 
religion has ceased ; since enough evidence has been left to 
satisfy a candid mind. The gift of tongues is no longer 
required, since ignorant fishermen are not (as then) called 
upon suddenly to proclaim the Gospel in distant lands ; but 
every individuoi Christian who comes into the world, being 



140 ON FAITH AND SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE. 

born of the frail and sinful race of Adam, has need of being 
" born again," as our Lord says, " of water and of the Spirit, 
in order to enter into the kingdom of heaven." And we 
have daily need throughout our lives of the renoAving influ- 
ence of the Holy Spirit, to enable us to know and love God, 
since "no one," says our Lord, "can come unto me, except 
my Father who hath sent me draw him." We all need His 
heavenly light to clear our eyes from spiritual blindness, and 
to enable us to see all things in their true colours, and shape, 
and magnitude; We all need His " Spirit which helpeth our 
infirmities," that we may "be strong in the Lord, and in the 
power of His might, and able to stand against the wiles of 
the devil." From all the delusions, in short, and from all 
the temptations in the world, the flesh, and the devil, the 
Christian can only be preserved by the Spirit of Christ 
dwelling in him ; which he has, therefore, as much need to 
seek, and may have as full confidence of obtaining, as the 
Apostles themselves. 

One important distinction, with respect to the Divine as- 
sistance and spiritual endowment between the Christian 
Church and the Jewish, is, that whatever sanctifying aid may 
have been supplied under the Old Covenant, it was no part 
of that Covenant; — of the Christian covenant it is. God 
the Holy Ghost — God manifest in the Spirit, was not the 
permanent Ruler of the former Church, as He is of the 
Christian Church. He is our Promised and Permanent Com- 
forter; He is the ^'"promise of the Father" sent that "He 
may abide with v& for ever.'' 

The Apostles inferred this or that to be right or true from 
its being the suggestion of the Spirit as attested to them by 
miracles ; we must reverse their procedure and judge any- 



ON" FAITH AND SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE. 141 

thing to be the suggestion of the Spirit by its being right 
and true, evidenced to us to be so by the Scripture, that re- 
cord of the dictates of the Holy Ghost. If our life and 
faith are agreeable to the Gospel, this is the ground of con- 
fidence that they are right ; and if right, tliey must come 
from that sanctifying, and enlightening, and supporting 
grace, which alone can raise to life the dead in sin, and 
purify man's corrupt nature, and effectually open his eyes to 
the truth, and "strengthen the feeble knees" to walk in 
God's paths. 

The miraculous gift was only the proof and pledge of 
spiritual influence ; the seal and earnest that the treasure 
had been bestowed, and not the treasure itself. And as the 
blaze of the pillar which guided the Israelites in the wilder- 
ness, and proved to them the Divine presence among them, 
was withdrawn when they were sufficiently convinced of that 
presence, and, as it were, familiar with the belief that the 
Lord was among them as their Protector and King — the 
manifestation of "the glory of the Lord" being thencefor- 
ward enclosed within the Most Holy place ; — so the outward 
and sensible marks of God's presence in His Church were 
gradually AvithdraAvn, when sufficient evidence had been 
afforded of that presence ; which is still not less real or less 
efi"ectual than before; and which is no longer miraculously 
displayed, only because it has been already sufficiently 
proved. 

There is an opposite error to the looking for sensible de- 
monstrations to the mind of being under spiritual influence. 
It is that of those who acknowledge in general terms the ex- 
istence and the necessity of the ordinary operations of the 
Spirit, but explain them away in each particular case ; and 



142 ON THE APPEAL OF CIIKISTIAN TKUTII 

thus completely nullify the doctrine. They allow that 
Christians are to expect the sanctifying grace of the Holy 
Ghost ; hut each separate work in which this Divine agency 
can possibly operate, being of course such as right reason 
would approve, they refer to right reason alone ; and by this 
means they exclude one by one every possible instance in 
which the ordinary grace of the Spirit can operate ; for any- 
thing which could not be traced to any natural cause, would 
clearly be miraculous. But a doctrine which is true gene- 
rally, cannot be false in every particular instance. In fact, 
what we mean by the ordinary operation of the Holy Spirit, 
is His operation through second causes ; His aid to our en- 
deavours ; His blessing upon the means of grace. We are 
taught to pray for our daily bread as God's gift, though it 
is not like manna showered miraculously from the skies ; and 
every Christian thought, and word, and deed is no less " from 
above, and cometh down from the Father of lights," though 
it come not accompanied with fiery tongues, and the " sound 
of a mighty wind." Its Christian goodness is the sign of its 
spiritual origin. 



ON THE APPEAL OF CHRISTIAN TRUTH TO THE AFFECTIONS. 

The Gospel turns to its own gracious purposes all the 
tendencies of human nature that are not evil. It stops not 
the current, but directs it into the proper channel. 

One of the most striking peculiarities of the gospel of the 
Lord Jesus is its continual appeal to the affections. " If ye 
love Me, keep My commandments." Here is the best prin- 
ciple set forth, and the best application of it ; the purest 



TO THE AFFECTIONS. 143 

motive and the most perfect practice. The love of Christ is 
the proper ground of our obedience ; and our obedience, the 
proper effect, and the sure test, of our love for Christ. 

Reason can no more influence the will, and operate as a 
motive, than the eyes which show a man his road can enable 
him to move from place to place ; or that a ship, provided 
with a compass, can sail without a wind. 

The apostle John, when he said, "No man hath seen God 
at any time," seems to have had in mind not merely the 
difficulty to -such a creature as man, of making- a being whose 
nature is so incomprehensible that our knowledge of Him is 
chiefly negative, a steady object of thought ; but also that 
still greater difficulty of setting his aff'ections on this awful 
and inconceivable Being ; — of addressing, as a tender parent, 
Him who has formed out of nothing, and could annihilate in 
a moment, countless myriads, perhaps, of worlds besides our 
own ; and to whom " the nations are but as the drop of a 
bucket, and the small dust of a balance;" — of imploring 
favour and deprecating punishment from Him who has no 
passions or wants as we have ; — the difficulty, in short, of 
holding spiritual intercourse with One with whom we can 
have no sympathy, and of whom we can with difficulty form 
any clear conception. But the apostle adds, " The only- 
begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath 
declared Him ;" and thus seems to have conceived such a 
"declaration" of God as calculated not, indeed, wholly to 
remove these impediments to love and devotion, but so far to 
moderate and lower them as to leave them no longer insuper- 
able to a willing mind. 

The Divine " Word was made flesh" to lead us to affec- 
tionate piety, and the manhood was taken into God to teach 



144 ON THE APPEAL OF CHRISTIAN TRUTH 

US Godlike virtue. The one purpose may be said to have 
been to bring down God to man ; the other to lift up man 
towards God. 

God sent His Son into the world to proclaim peace to all 
who should hear and accept His offers. He came to encoun- 
ter and overcome Satan — to offer up Himself as a sacrifice 
—"the just for the unjust" — and to proclaim pardon, not as 
if sin were a light thing in God's sight, but as purchased by 
the precious and "innocent blood." He came to "bind up 
the broken-hearted ; to preach deliverance to the captives ;" 
and promised to come unto them that should love Him, and 
to make His abode in them by His Spirit ; that they might 
be enabled to follow the bright example He had set them, 
and thus to live in peace with God — to become the sons of 
God, and after death to enter into His eternal rest ; the re- 
ward which He, not they, had earned. 

The burden of grief may, indeed, be lightened by the 
sympathy of others ; but the burden of guilt can be taken 
off our consciences only by God's forgiveness. Men forget, 
that for bearing both burdens they have a great High Priest 
in heaven, Jesus, the Son of God, who " bore our griefs and 
carried our sorrows;" upon whom " the chastisement of our 
peace was laid, and by whose stripes we are healed.;" who 
" can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are 
out of the way," having been Himself "tempted in all 
points like as we are, yet without sin ;" being subject to all 
the wants, infirmities, and temptations incident to His, and 
our, human nature. All this calls for our sympathy as well 
as reverence and gratitude ; and the affectionate attachment 
thus so naturally generated will adhere (if I may so express 
myself) to the divine nature of the Saviour also, and when 



TO THE AFFECTIONS. 145 

■we worship Him, though we worship Him not as man, hut 
as God, still it will give an affectionate fervour to our devo- 
tions, to have an habitual remembrance, that this very God 
was also man, deigning for our sakes to be "made flesh, and 
dwell among us," "taking upon Him the form of a servant, 
and humbling Himself even unto the death of the cross." 

It seems to be commonly taken for granted that whenever 
the feelings are strongly excited, they are necessarily over- 
excited ; it may be that they are only brought into the state 
which the occasion fully justifies ; or even that they still fall 
short of this. Stimulants are not to be condemned, as ne- 
cessarily bringing the body into an unnatural state, because 
they raise the circulation ; in a fever this would be hurtful ; 
but there may be a torpid, lethargic disease in which an ex- 
citement of the circulation is precisely what is wanted to 
bring it into a healthy condition. 

Men are not satisfied with pointing out to a young person 
the necessity of being diligent in his business, inasmuch as 
on that depends his subsistence, and all his hopes of wealth 
and distinction • but they strive also to inspire him with a 
love for his employment — a taste for his profession, as the 
best safeguard against the many temptations to indolence and 
dissipation. Surely the path of Christian duty is not beset 
with fewer temptations, nor is it less necessary to engage the 
feelings on the side of duty, to fix the affections on the 
Redeemer. 

No man would much prize a friend (indeed, he would be 
reckoned unworthy of the name) who felt no regard for him, 
but did him service merely because he perceived it was for 
13 



146 ON THE APPEAL OF CHRISTIAN TEUTH 

his own interest. Nor will Christ accept this kind of service 
from His followers. He requires them to give up their hearts 
to Him and. to obey Him, not merely as "servants," but as 
" friends." 

The language of promise and threatening — the appeal to 
the reason and to the interests of men — is not the prevailing 
character — not the general tone, as it were, of the discourses 
of Christ and His Apostles when addressing believers. They 
hold out a nobler and purer motive. They chiefly insist on 
love towards Christ, not certainly as a substitute for obe- 
dience, but as the foundation of obedience — as the great 
principle, the main spring of Christian conduct, — they urge 
us to fix those warm afiections which God has implanted in 
our breasts, and which were never meant to be rooted out, on 
the most suitable and noblest objects. " The love of Christ 
constraineth us," says Paul, and " He died for all, that they 
which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but 
unto Him who died for them and rose again." 

Christ and His Apostles well knew that a cold address to 
the understanding — a mere chain of arguments — serves 
rather to make men acknowledge what they ought to do than 
to excite them actually to do it. It may lead them to thinh 
rightly about religion, but not to feel and act rightly. It is 
like th© moonlight — clear, indeed, and beautiful, but power- 
less and cold ; their preaching, on the contrary, was like the 
light of the sun, which warms while it illuminates, and not 
only adorns but fertilizes the earth. 

The object of friendship is not certain qualities merely, 
but a certain individual person. The cravings of an affec- 



TO THE AFFECTIONS. 147 

tionate heart can only be satisfied with the very person on 
whom it is fixed. Therefore that peculiar characteristic of 
our religion which consists in its continual reference to 
persons, and especially to that Great Person who is the 
Author of it, rather than to abstract things, is eminently 
calculated to win over the affections, and to gain the heart. 
And strikingly is this characteristic exhibited by the Apostle 
Paul, whether in speaking of the Christian's hopes, or of the 
Christian's duties. If the latter be his theme, it is not of 
Christian virtue in the abstract that he speaks most often, 
but of it embodied, exemplified, represented, personified in 
Jesus Christ. He speaks of " walking in love, as Christ also 
hath loved us;" of "putting on Christ;" of "being buried 
with Him in baptism ;" of " being risen with Christ ;" " look- 
ing unto Jesus, the Author and finisher of our faith," at every 
step. And on the other hand he does not speak so much of 
eternal happiness in the abstract as of the happiness of an 
intimate union with our Great Master ; to die is, with Him, 
to depart and to be with Christ f' after " having suffered with 
Him, to reign also with Sim;'' of "the crown of glory," 
which He, the righteous Lord, has prepared for all that 
" love his appearing ;" and his encouragement to the Thes- 
salonians is, "so shall we ever be ivitli tlie Lord.''' And this 
tone is the more remarkable in the expressions of Paul, from 
the circumstance that he was not, like the other Apostles, 
personally acquainted with Jesus while on earth. Thus also 
the Evangelist John (as well befitted the beloved disciple) 
places both all Christian perfection in conformity to the pat- 
tern, and all happiness and glory in admission to the pre- 
sence of our Great Master. " We know not what we shall 
be ; but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be 
like Him, for we shall see Him as He is ; as much as to say, 
even the very hope of hereafter " being with the Lord," leads 



148 ON THE APPEAL OF CHRISTIAN TRUTH. 

believers to conform themselves to the example of His purity : 
and the actual enjoyment of His presence will carry further 
and complete that resemblance to their Divine Master, which 
they are now, through the promised aid of God's sanctifying 
Spirit, striving after. And our Lord's own language is of 
the same tone : as the motive He seeks to implant in the 
disciple's breast is, as has been said, love, gratitude and 
reverence for Himself ; so the encouragement He sets before 
them is the hope, not merely of happiness in the abstract, 
but of intimate union and close intercourse with Himself: 
" If ye love Me, keep My commandments." " If a man love 
Me, he will keep my saying, and My Father will love him, 
and We will come unto Mm, and make our abode with him." 
" I will not leave you comfortless, I will come unto youJ'^ 
" I will come again, and receive you unto Myself, that where 
I am, there ye may be also." 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

Four kinds of bad examples do us harm : — 1. Those we 
imitate ; 2. those Tve proudly exult over ; 3. those which 
drive us into an opposite extreme ; and 4. those which lower 
our standard. A man is always in danger of being satisfied, 
and perhaps, more than satisfied, if he does but excel ; and 
excellence is relative. Whence it comes that bad examples 
do much the greatest amount of evil among those who do not 
follow them. Eor one who is corrupted by becoming as bad 
as a bad example, there are ten that are debased by becom- 
ing content with being better. 

An honest man has, cseteris paribus, a better knowledge 
of human nature than a knave ; because he knows that there 
are knaves ; while the other generally disbelieves the exist- 
ence of honest men. Inferior motives, self-interest, love of 
ease, &c., are understood by all, because they exist in all. 
The higher motives do not exist in the baser part of mankind, 
who, consequently, are apt not to believe in them. It is to 
this Miss Edgeworth alludes, when she speaks of the class of 
persons who " divide all mankind into knaves and fools ; and 
when they meet with an honest man, do not know what to 
make of him." 

The poet who said, " Little things are great to little men," 
might have added, " Great things are little to little men." 

As a great part of the pleasure afforded by wit results 
from a j^^i'ccption of sJcill displayed and difficulty surmounted, 
13 * "^ (H9) 



150 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

jests on sacred subjects afford the least gratification to judges 
of good taste, for this reason, (apart from all higher con- 
siderations,) that they are the most easily produced of any ; 
the contrast between a dignified and a low image exhibited 
in combination, (in which the whole force of the ludicrous 
consists,) being in this case the most striking. 

Lord Byron, though a dangerous writer to the very 
thoughtless, may, in his later works, prove a very serviceable 
writer to a person of tolerable good sense, by furnishing 
a sort of reductio ad ahsurdum of the whole system of 
scoffing. 

A Socinian, we will say, who fancies ridicule the test of 
truth, thinks he has made the doctrine of the incarnation 
appear perfectly absurd by having held it up to ridicule and 
scorn ; professing all along, and perhaps, feeling, the most 
serious veneration for Christianity. But the Deist finds it 
very easy to employ the same plan for his purposes ; for, in 
fact, "everything," says the proverb, "has two handles," 
and it is not difficult to place Christianity in such a point of 
view that it shall seem extravagant and ridiculous, and so to 
interweave with every part of it absurd ideas, and to suggest 
low and ludicrous associations that it shall seem unworthy of 
serious notice. Meantime, he is perhaps not at all aware of 
what he is about, not dreaming that what he calls natural re- 
ligion may be laughed down, just on the same plan. The 
Atheist does this for him, making the whole constitution and 
course of nature appear a joke — the universe, a whimsical 
and random jumble of atoms ; yet he will still have some 
ground to stand on, as he will talk very big of conforming 
to the excellence of human nature, of the perfectibility of 
the species, and of virtue being its own reward, &c. 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 151 

Next comes the pliilosopher, or pliilosopliico-sentlmentalist 
of some of the German schools, who, in like manner, holds 
up to scorn all rules of ethics — all pretence of acting on 
fixed principles ; and is all for " listening to the dictates of 
the heart," "following the impulse of unsophisticated 
nature," &c., &c. If, therefore, you ask Mm whether there 
is anything at all that is worthy of serious regard, he will 
refer you to those feelings as what ought to be so considered. 
Then forth steps Lord Byron, and shows you that it is not a 
whit more difiicult to turn into ridicule all the most natural 
feelings of the human heart ; thus overthrowing the last 
stronghold to which reason, or anything partaking of reason, 
can retire ; extinguishing this last faint glimmer of twilight, 
on the same principle by which the utmost brilliancy that 
human wisdom can attain had been quenched. 

A man of any considerate common sense will be apt to 
pause at this, and reflect, that since there surely is sometJnng 
which is not a mere joke, and since it now appears plain that 
there is nothing which may not be so represented, by one 
who has the knack of setting things in an absurd point of 
view, it may be as well, to try over again, with serious 
candour, everything which has been hastily given up as fit 
only for ridicule, and to abandon the system of scofiing al- 
together ; looking at everything on the right side as well as 
the wrong, and trying how any system will look standing 
upright, as well as topsy-turvy. 

There seems to me a considerable resemblance between 
Lord Byron, Voltaire in his Candide, and Swift in his 
Houghymns ; viz., that each seems to satirize not merely any 
class of mankind in general, as they are, but human nature 
in the abstract : one might suppose each to be a being (as, I 
think, Mad. de Stiiel says of Voltaire) of a different species. 



152 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

Swift does not, however, so fully answer the purpose of a 
reductio ad absurdum, because though he laughs at, and 
abuses, everything that is, he seems to have a real value for 
something that is conceivable. The ridicule, however, which, 
in his account of Lagoda he throws indiscriminately on all 
projects of improvement, (for he represents his man of sense 
not as steering a middle course, but as being against all alte- 
rations, wishing to let everything remain just as it was,) 
when compared with the improvements which have, since his 
time, taken place in agricultural implements, machinery of 
various sorts, gas-lamps, rail-roads, steamboats, and number- 
less things connected with chemistry, abundantly prove how 
possible, and how easy, it is to make what is perfectly 
rational and highly dignified, assume an air of the wildest 
and most ludicrous absurdity. Astronomy and electricity 
have been most copiously ridiculed in their time; — see a 
satire oi ^udibras—^3ut\evI—jon the Royal Society, soon 
after its establishment. 

It is a good plan, with a young person of a character to 
be much affected by ludicrous and absurd representations, to 
show him plainly, by examples, that there is nothing which 
may not be so represented ; he will hardly need to be told 
that every thing is not a mere joke, and he may thus be se- 
cured from falling into a contempt of those particular things, 
which he may, at any time, happen to find so treated. 

Certainly, it cannot be said that Lord Byron has put vice 
in the most seductive form ; for he always places it in com- 
pany with acute suffering or dismal gloom. And though, in 
many instances, he has conferred a dignity on his vicious 
character, nearly (not quite) as seductive as that of Milton's 
Satan, yet in Don Juan he has robbed it even of dignity. 
His writings, however, may do harm to the very thoughtless. 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 153' 

Sophistry, like poison, is at once detected and nauseated, 
when presented to us in a concentrated form ; but a fallacy 
■which, when stated barely in a few sentences, would not de- 
ceive a child, may deceive half the world, if diluted in a 
quarto volume. It is true, in a course of argument, as in 
mechanics, that " nothing is stronger than its weakest part," 
and consequently a chain which has one faulty link will 
break ; but though the number of the sound links adds 
nothing to the strength of the chain, it adds much to the 
chance of the faulty one's escaping observation. 

It must not be expected that reason will universally make 
its way. ^^ Medic amenta, "" says the medical aphorism, 
"wow agunt incadaver." Those in whom indolence is com- 
bined with pride, will be induced, by the one, to remain in 
their position, and, by the other, to fortify it as well as they 
can. 

A safe man, in the estimation of most people, is one, not 
whose views are, on the whole, most reasonable, but one who 
is free from all errors except vulgar errors. 

Galileo, probably, would have escaped persecution, if his 
discoveries could have been disproved, and his reasonings 
refuted. 

A crude theory, in the language of some men, means one, 
which (being new) has not first occurred to themselves. 

A superfluous truism to one person, may be a revolting 
paradox to another. 

An incorrect analogy, constantly before us, is like a dis- 
torted mirror in the apartment we inhabit, producing a fixed 



154 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

and habitual false impression. Such a familiar, seeming 
analogy between the several professions, has led men to feel, 
rather than distinctly maintain, that as they confide the 
care of their bodily health to the physician, and of their legal 
transactions to the lawyer, so they may commit to a distinct 
order of men, the care of their religious concerns, and serve 
God by proxy. 

Man, except when unusually depraved, retains enough of 
the image of his Maker to have a natural reverence for reli- 
gion, and a desire that God should be worshipped ; but 
through the corruption of bis nature, his heart is (except 
when divinely purified) too much alienated from God to take 
delight in serving Him. Hence, the disposition men have 
ever shown to substitute the devotion of the priest for their 
own : — to leave the duties of piety in his hands, and to let 
him serve God in their stead. This disposition is not so 
much the consequence, as itself the origin, of priest-craft. 

The frequency with which we hear profane discourse, intem- 
perance, or devote dness to frivolous amusements, character- 
ized as "unbecoming a clergyman," in a sort of tone which 
implies the speaker's feeling to be, that they are unbecoming 
merely to a clergyman, not to a Christian, is a proof of the 
general tendency to vicarious religion, which makes men, 
who take little care to keep their own lights burning, desirous 
to have one to whom they may apply in their extremity, 
" Give us of your oil, for our lamps are going out." 

An exemplary character, according to the notions of some, 
is one whose example no one is expected to follow. 

To trace any error to its source, will often throw more 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 155 

light on the subject in hand, than can he obtained, if we rest 
satisfied with merely detecting and refuting it. 

Men delight in everything peculiar ^ whether an advantage 
or not. 

It is seldom that a man labours well in his minor depart- 
ment, unless he overrates it. It is lucky for us, that the bee 
does not look upon the honeycomb in the same light we do. 

That is suitable to a man in point of ornamental expense, 
not which he can afibrd to Aawe, but which he can afford to 
lose. 

Never let a confidence be forced upon you. 

Hard labour is not whenever you are very actively em^ 
ployed, but when you must be. 

To be always thinking about your manners, is not the way 
to make them good ; because the very perfection of manners 
is not to think about yourself. 

The love of admiration leads to fraud, much more than the 
love of commendation ; but, on the other hand, the latter is 
much more likely to spoil our good actions by the substitution 
of an inferior motive. 

The tendency of the love of commendation is to make a 
man exert himself; of the love of admiration, to make him 
f'wff himself. 

If a man is content with the opinion of virtue or ability, 
he seems manifestly prizing a mere shadow, and we exclaim 



156 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTIIE&MS. 

against sucli pure vanity ; but if a person can be universally 
and constantly believed to possess beauty, or a fine ring, he 
has all that the actual possession of them could confer ; you 
cannot therefore so well blame a person for pursuing a 
shadow, in a case where the substance is valued only for the 
sake of the shadow. 

As one of the earliest dawning, and most important, 
differences between individuals is the degree and manner in 
which they desire approbation, so it is one of the most strik- 
ing in their respective behaviours. As with children, some 
are anxious to attract notice, and wanting you to observe 
them when playing, while another even of the same family is 
quite independent, and satisfied in solitude : so also with 
grown persons ; one man is considering at every step what 
people think of him ; the other, comparatively, concerns 
himself little about it: the one speaks as if he wanted to 
say something — the other as if he had something to say. 
The manner generated by the former habit, has been, aptly 
enough, called conscious^ which perfectly accords with Adam 
Smith's account of conscience ; viz., the judgment which we 
pronounce on our own coijduct by putting ourselves in the 
place of a by-stander. 

While we are taking pains with our morals, we are taking 
pains with that which is the most important ; when about 
manners, we are attending to the surface, instead of the sub- 
stance. Take care of the digestion and circulation, if you 
would keep them sound ; if you would keep the skin clear, 
take care (not of the skin, but) of the digestion and circu- 
lation. 

He will please most who is aiming, not to please, but to 
give pleasure. 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 157 

It is remarkable that great affectation, and great absence of 
it (unconsciousness), are at first sight very similar ; — they 
are both apt to produce singularity. 

Though many conscious people are very agreeable, there 
is a charm in unconscious manners, which endears a person, 
even when there is nothing else very remarkable in him. 
Social intercourse is in itself a pleasure, independent of the 
instruction or entertainment we may derive from the matter 
and language ; else books would be, which they are not, a 
complete substitute for society : hence it appears, that the 
essence of social intercourse is the interchange of ideas, as 
they arise actually in the minds of the speakers ; the excel- 
lence of it, therefore, in social intercourse, must consist in 
complete unconsciousness ; the further you recede from that, 
(and there are infinite degrees), however clever your conver- 
sation, the less have you of the nature of a companion, and 
the more of a book ; consequently Consciousness is, as it 
were, the specific poison of that which is the very essence 
of conversation. All disregard of self also is so amiable, 
that unconsciousness seems to be almost a virtue. In the 
pulpit, it is quite : an ambassador from heaven should not 
dare to be thinking of himself, and trying to be a fine man, 
when he should only be thinking of his message. How 
would the practice of this virtue, with singleness of heart, by 
the clergy, increase the effect produced by them ! 

A student of mathematics, after having gone through, and 
seemingly understood, Euclid's proof, that the squares of the 
sides containing a right angle, are equal to the square of the 
side, subtending it, remarked, to the astonishment and dis- 
may of his teacher, "But it is not really so, is it, Sir?" 
Many, who would laugh at this query, might yet be found 
14 



158 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

assenting to all the reasoning on wliich some political or other 
measure should be maintained, and then coolly remarking, 
that it is practically false, though theoretically true: or, 
themselves maintaining some principles of moral conduct, 
■which yet, they consider themselves as not bound to exem- 
plify in their own practice, though they may be very suitable 
to a moral tale. And in proportion as men are accustomed 
(much more, children) to contemplate and admire virtue, 
■without being taught, by example or otherwise, that they are 
expected to realize the picture, they will become the less 
fitted for the actual performance of their duties. 

A large volume might be composed of moral apophthegms 
•which are commonly uttered, and readily admitted, but 
■which were never practically believed by any one. 

Men's moral maxims, in general, are, like Peter Pindar's 
razors, made not to shave, but to sell. 

Ethical maxims are bandied about as a sort of current coin 
of discourse, and being never melted down for use, those 
that are of base metal are never detected. 

The charity of some persons consists in proceeding on the 
supposition, that to believe in the existence of an injury is to 
cherish implacable resentment, and that it is impossible to 
forgive, except where there is nothing to be forgiven. It is 
obvious that these notions render nugatory the gospel pre- 
cepts. Why should we be called upon to render good for 
evil, if we are bound always to explain away that evil, and 
call it good ? Where there is manifestly just groimd for 
complaint, we should accustom ourselves to say, " That man 
owes me an hundred pence!" Thus, at once recalling to 
our mind the parable of him who rigorously enforced his 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 159 

own claims, wlien he had been forgiven a debt of ten thou- 
sand talents. 

To dwell upon the faults of a parent or a friend, or even 
a stranger, is wrong ; but it is absolutely necessary to per- 
ceive and acknowledge them ; for, if we think ourselves 
bound to vindicate them in another, we shall not be very 
likely to condemn them in ourselves. Self-love will, most 
likely, demand fair play, and urge that what is right in another 
is not wrong in us ; and thus we shall have been perverting 
our own principles of morality. 

Most precepts that are given are so general that they 
cannot be applied, except by an exercise of just as much dis- 
cretion as would be sufficient to frame them. 

Most men will agree that practice without principle, or 
vice versd, is not enough ; but they can seldom understand, 
that when both are right, something more may yet be, and 
often is, wanting ; viz., that the practice should spring from 
the principle. 

Any Christian minister who should confine himself to what 
are sometimes (erroneously) called "practical sermons," — 
i. e., mere moral essays, without any mention of the peculiar 
doctrines of Christianity, — is in the same condition with the 
heathen philosophers, with this difference, that what was 
their misfortune is }i\s, fault. 

It is too generally true, that all that is required to make 
men unmindful what they owe to God for any blessing, is, 
that they should receive that blessing often enough, and 
regularly enough. 



160 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

Early and long familiarity is apt to generate a careless, — > 
I might almost say, a stupid, indifference to many objects, 
■which, if new to us, would excite a great and a just admira- 
tion : and many are inclined even to hold cheap a stranger, 
who expresses wonder at what seems to us very natural and 
simple, merely because we have been used to it, while, in 
fact, perhaps, our apathy is a more just subject of contempt 
than his astonishment. 

The liability to mistake for the wisdom of man, that which 
is in truth the wisdom of God, is manifested in nothing, per- 
haps, more than in overlooking the evidences of the Divine 
wisdom in the provisions made for the progress of society. 
In the bodily structure of man, and in the result of instinct 
in brutes, we plainly perceive innumerable marks of wise 
contrivance, in which it is plain that man and the brute can 
have had no share. But when human conduct tends to some 
desirable end, and when the agents are competent to perceive 
that the end is desirable, and the means well adapted to it, 
we are apt to forget that those means were not devised, nor 
those ends proposed, by the persons themselves who are 
employed. For instance, let any one propose to himself the 
problem of supplying with daily provisions the inhabitants 
of such a city as London, — that "province covered with 
houses." Let any one consider this problem in all its bear- 
ings, — reflecting on the enormous and fluctuating number of 
persons to be fed, the immense quantity, and the variety, of 
the provisions to be furnished, the importance of a conve- 
nient distribution of them, and the necessity of husbanding 
them discreetly, lest a deficient supply, even for a single day, 
should produce distress, or a redundancy, from the perishable 
nature of many of them, produce a corresponding waste ; and 
then, let him reflect on the anxious toil which such a task 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 161 

would impose on a Board of the most experienced and intel- 
ligent commissaries, who, after all, would be able to discharge 
their office but very inadequately. Yet this object is accom- 
plished far better than it could be by any effort of human 
wisdom, through the agency of men, who think each of 
nothing beyond his own immediate interest, — who, with that 
object in view, perform their respective parts with cheerful 
zeal, — and combine unconsciously to employ the wisest 
means for effecting an object, the vastness of which it would 
bewilder them even to contemplate. Can any of the admira- 
ble marks of contrivance and design, in the anatomical 
structure of the human body, and in the instincts of the 
brute creation, be more admirable than that beneficent wis- 
dom of Providence, by which not corporeal particles, but 
rational free agents, co-operate in systems no less manifestly 
indicating design, — yet no design of theirs ; and though 
acted on, not by gravitation and impulse, like inert matter, 
but by motives addressed to the will, yet advance as regularly 
and as effectually the accomplishment of an object they never 
contemplated, as if they were merely the passive wheels of a 
machine. 

Human conduct with regard to knowledge, furnishes an 
instance, as far as respects the object not being contemplated 
by the agent, of a procedure precisely analogous to that of 
instinct. Knowledge would not have made the advances it 
has made, if it had been promoted only by persons influenced 
by pure public spirit. The greater part of it is the gift, not 
of human, but of Divine benevolence, which has implanted 
in man a thirst after knowledge for its own sake, accom- 
panied with a sort of instinctive desire, founded probably on 
sympathy, of communicating it to others as an ultimate end. 
14* 



162 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

It is now generally acknowledged that relief aiForded to 
■want, as mere want, tends to increase that want ; while the 
relief afforded to the sick, the infirm, and the disabled, has 
plainly no tendency to multiply its own objects. Now it is 
remarkable, that the Lord Jesus employed His miraculous 
power in healing the sick continually, but in feeding the 
hungry only twice ; while the power of multiplying food 
which He then manifested, as well as His directing the dis- 
ciples to take care and gather up the fragments that re- 
mained that nothing might be lost, served to mark that the 
abstaining from any like procedure on other occasions was 
deliberate design. In this, besides other objects, our Lord 
had probably in view to afford us some instruction, from his 
example, as to the mode of our charity. Certain it is, that 
the reasons for this distinction are now, and ever must be, 
the same as at that time. Now to those engaged in that 
important and inexhaustible subject of enquiry, the internal 
evidences of Christianity, it will be interesting to observe 
here, one of the instances in which the super-human wisdom 
of Jesus forestalled the discovery of an important principle, 
often overlooked, not only by the generality of men, but by 
the most experienced statesmen and the ablest philosophers, 
even in these later ages of extended human knowledge, and 
development of mental power. 

One of the most interesting and important points in 
Natural Theology is, the combination of physical laws with 
instincts adapted to them. One instance, out of many, of 
this principle, may be taken as a sample, — that of the 
instinct of suction, as connected with the whole process of 
rearing young animals. The calf sucks, and its mother 
ec^ually desires to be disburthened of its milk. Thus there 
are two instincts tending the same way. Moreover, the calf 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 163 

has an appetite for grass also; it takes hold of the grass, 
chews and swallows it ; hut it does not hite hut sucks the 
teat. But it is also necessary that there should he a physi- 
cal adaptation of the atmosphere to the instinct of the animal. 
It is the pressure of the atmosphere upon the part, and the 
withdrawal of that pressure within the young animal's mouth, 
which forces out the milk. Here is an adaptation of instinct 
to the physical constitution of the atmosphere. Yet again, 
all this would he insufficient without the addition of that 
storge, or instinctive parental affection, which leads the dam 
carefully to watch and defend its young. The most timid 
animals are ready to risk their lives, and undergo any hard- 
ships, to protect their young, which is a feeling quite dis- 
tinct from the gratification felt hy the dam from her offspring 
drawing her milk. Here, then, are several instincts, and 
the adaptation of the atmosphere to one of those instincts, 
all comhining towards the preservation of the species ; which 
form, in conjunction, as clear an indication of design as 
can he conceived. It is hardly possible to conceive any 
plainer mark of design, unless a person were beforehand to 
say that he intended to do a certain thing. Yet this is not 
all ; for the secretion of milk is not common to both sexes, 
and all ages, and all times. Here is the secretion of milk 
at a particular time, just corresponding with the need for it. 
if we found sickles produced at harvest, fires lighted when 
the weather is cold, and sails spread when favourable winds 
blow, we should see clearly that these things were designed 
to effect a certain end or object. Now, in the case of the 
mother and the young, there is a secretion of milk at a par- 
ticular period, and in an animal of a distinct sex — the one 
which has given birth to the young. Yet the perpetuation 
of the species might take place if the milk had been provided 
so as to be constant in all ages and sexes. But what we do 



164 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

see is, inea,ns provided for an end, and just commensurate to 
that end. 

To perceive a reason for anything that God has done is 
far diflFerent from perceiving the reason. 

A fool can ask more questions than a wise man can 
answer ; hut a wise man cannot ask more questions than he 
will find a fool ready to answer. 

It usually requires that a man should have some confidence 
in his own understanding to venture to say, " What has heen 
spoken is unintelligible to me." 

He that is not aware of his ignorance, will be only misled 
by his knowledge. 

Young students should remember, that by a confession of 
real ignorance must real knowledge be gained; and even 
when that further knowledge is not gained, still even the 
knowledge of the ignorance is a great thing in itself, — so 
great, it seems, as to have constituted Socrates the wisest of 
his time. 

Some of the chief sources of unknown ignorance are to 
be found in our not being aware, 1. How inadequate a 
medium language is for conveying thought. 2. How inade- 
quate our very minds are for the comprehension of many 
things. 3. How little we need understand a word which may 
yet be familiar to us, and which we may use in reasoning. 
This piece of ignorance is closely connected with the two 
foregoing, (Hence, frequently men will accept as an expla- 
nation of a phenomenon, a mere statement of the difficulty 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 165 

in otlier words.) 4. How utterly ignorant we are of efficient 
causes ; and how the philosopher who refers to the law of 
gravitation the falling of a stone to the earth, no further ex- 
plains the phenomenon than the peasant, who would say it is 
the nature of it. The philosopher knows that the stone 
obeys the sajne law to which all other bodies are subject, and 
to which, for convenience, he gives the name of gravitation. 
His knowledge is only more general than the peasant's, 
which, hoAvever, is a vast advantage. 5. How many words 
there are that express, not the nature of the things they are 
applied to, but the manner in which they affect us: and 
which therefore give about as correct a notion of those 
things, as the word "crooked" would if applied to a stick 
half immersed in water. (Such is the word chance, with all 
its family.) 6. How many causes may and usually do, con- 
duce to the same effect. 7. How liable the faculties, even 
of the ablest, are to occasional failure ; so that they shall 
overlook mistakes (and those often the most at variance with 
their own established notions) which, when once exposed seem 
quite gross even to inferior men. 8. How much all are 
biassed, in all their moral reasonings, by self-love, or per- 
haps, rather, partiality to human nature and other passions. 
9. Dugald Stewart would add very justly. How little we 
know of matter ; no more indeed than of mind ; though all 
are prone to attempt explaining the phenomena of mind by 
those of matter : for what is familiar men generally consider 
as well knoton, though, the fact is oftener otherwise. The 
errors arising from these causes, from not calculating on 
them, — that is, in short, from ignorance of our own igno- 
rance, have probably impeded philosophy more than all 
other obstacles put together. 

"A little learning" is then only (and then always) "a 
dangerous thing," when we are not aware of its littleness. 



166 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

"A little learning is a dangerous thing," and yet it is 
•what all must attain before they can arrive at great learn- 
ing ; it is the utmost acquisition of those who know the most, 
in comparison of what they do not know. The field of 
science may be compared to an American forest, in which 
the more trees a man cuts down, the greater is the expanse 
of wood he sees around him. 

An error in physics and science is nothing so long as it is 
not taught as a part of religion. If taught as such, it be- 
comes a lever placed underneath a man's religious principles, 
which will heave up and overthrow them ; for as soon as he 
^discovers it to he error, he thinks he has got a demonstration 
of the falsity of the revelation, of which he has been told it 
is a part. 

It is not over-education, but misdirected education, that is 
to be deprecated. 

It has been objected, that to educate the children of the 
poor disqualifies them for an humble and laborious station in 
life, — and it is indeed possible so to educate children as to 
unfit them for it : but this mistake does not so much consist 
in the amount of the knowledge imparted, as in the Teind 
and the manner of education. Habits early engrafted on 
children, of regular attention, — of steady application to 
what they are about, — of prompt obedience to the directions 
they receive, — of cleanliness, order, and decent and modest 
behaviour, cannot but be of advantage to them in after life, 
whatever their station may be. And certainly, their familiar 
acquaintance with the precepts and example of Him who, 
when all stations of life were at His command, chose to be 
the reputed son of a poor mechanic, and to live with peasants 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 167 

and fishermen ; or, again, of His apostle Paul, wliose own 
hands ministered to his necessities, and to those of his com- 
panions : such studies, I say, can surely never tend to unfit 
any one for a life of humble and contented industry. 

The dangers of knowledge are not to be compared with 
the dangers of ignorance. Man is more likely to miss his 
way in darkness than in Uoilight ; in twilight than in full 
sun. 

While the pedantry of learning and science has often been 
dwelt upon, and deservedly ridiculed, there is another danger 
on the opposite side, which is rarely, if ever, mentioned ; yet 
it is a folly quite as great as the other ; of a yet more in- 
tolerable character, and still more hopeless. — I mean what 
may be called "the pedantry of common-sense and expe- 
rience." For one person who is overbearing you on account 
of his knowledge of technical terms, you will find five or 
six, still more provokingly impertinent, with their common- 
sense and experience. Their common-sense will be found 
nothing more than common prejudice ; and their experience 
will be found to consist in the fact that they have done a 
thing wrong very often, and fancy they have done it right. 
In former times, men knew by experience that the earth 
stands still, and the sun rises and sets. Common-sense 
taught them that there could be no antipodes ; since men 
could not stand with their heads downwards, like flies on the 
ceiling. Experience taught the King of Bantam that water 
could not become solid. And the experience and common- 
sense of one of the most observant and intelligent of his- 
torians, Tacitus, convinced him that for a mixed government 
to be so framed as to combine the elements of royalty, aris- 
tocracy, and democracy, must be next to impossible, and that 



168 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

if such a one could be framed, it must inevitably be very 
speedily dissolved. 

Since tlie sailor, tbe physician, and every other practi- 
tioner, each in his own department, gives the preference to 
unassisted common-sense only in those cases where he him- 
self has nothing else to trust to, and invariably resorts to 
the rules of art wherever he possesses the knowledge of them, 
it is plain that mankind universally bear their testimony, 
though unconsciously and often unwillingly, that systematic 
knowledge is preferable to conjectural judgments, and that 
common-sense is only our second best guide. 

There is a story told of some gentleman, who, on being asked 
whether he could play on the violin, made answer that he 
really did not know whether he could or not, because he had 
never tried. There is at least more modesty in this expres- 
sion of doubt, than those show who discuss, with the most 
unhesitating confidence, the most difficult questions of Po- 
litical Economy, while not only ignorant, but professedly 
ignorant, and designing to continue so, of the whole subject ; 
neither having, nor pretending to have, nor wishing for, any 
fixed principles by which to regulate their judgment on each 
point. And this glaring absurdity they conceal from them- 
selves, and from each other, by keeping clear of the title by 
which the science is commonly designated, while the subjects 
which constitute the proper and sole province of that science, 
they do not scruple to submit to extemporaneous discussion. 
Decisions on questions concerning taxation, tithes, the 
national debt, the poor-laws, the wages which labourers earn, 
or ought to earn, the comparative advantages of different 
modes of charity, and numberless others, are boldly pro- 
nounced, by many who utterly disclaim having turned their 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 169 

attention to Political Economy. This is as if the gentleman 
in the story just alluded to, had declai'ed his inability to play 
on the violin, at the same time expressing his confidence that 
he could play on the fiddle. 

Those who are too lazy to take the pains of acquiring 
accurate knowledge on some point on which they are igno- 
rant, and, at the same time, too proud to own their igno- 
rance, shelter themselves under the convenient plea of being 
adherents of common-sense, and decry speculative doctrines, 
which would be pernicious in practice. The censure may, in 
some instances, chance to be right ; and so, perhaps, might 
the grapes in the fable have been really sour — but the fox 
would have had a better right to pronounce upon them if he 
had first contrived to taste them. In fact, every theory 
which fails in practice, must, if duly examined, be found to 
contain some flaw in principle ; and the wiser and more 
efiectual (though not the least laborious) procedure, is, to 
detect its errors, and to condemn it, not for being a theory, 
but for being an unsound one. Common-sense (at least the 
most common sort of it) seems to be little better than the 
ofispring of pride and indolence. 

Men are often misled by resting on the authority of Expe- 
rience. Not that experience ought not to be allowed to have 
great weight, but that men are apt not to consider with suffi- 
cient attention what it is that constitutes Experience in each 
point ; and therefore need to be warned, first, that time alone 
does not constitute Experience ; so that many years may have 
passed over a man's head, without his even having had the 
same opportunities of acquiring it as another much younger. 
Secondly, that the longest practice in conducting any busi- 
ness in one way, does not necessarily confer any Experience 
15 



170 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

in conducting it in a different way ; e. g., an experienced 
husbandman, or minister of state in Persia, would be much 
at a loss in Europe. And, thirdly, that merely being con- 
versant about a certain class of subjects, does not confer 
Experience in a case where the operations, and the end pro- 
posed, are different ; as if a man had dealt largely in corn all 
his life who had never seen a field of wheat growing ; this 
man would doubtless have acquired by experience an accu- 
rate judgment of the qualities of each description of corn, — 
of the best methods of storing it, — of the arts of buying and 
selling it at proper times, &c. ; but he would have been 
greatly at a loss in its cultivation, though he had been, in a 
certain way, long conversant about corn. So the experience 
of practical men, which is often appealed to in opposition to 
those who are called theorists, will be sometimes found on an 
attentive examination to be, in fact, the results of a more 
confined instead of a wider experience, or to consist in their 
having for a long time gone on in a certain beaten track, 
from which they never tried, or witnessed, or even imagined, 
a deviation. It may be added, that there is a proverbial 
maxim which bears witness to the advantage sometimes pos- 
sessed by an obV^ji^ant by-stander over those actually en- 
gaged in any transaction, " The looker-on often sees more 
of the game than -the players.^ Now the looker-on is pre- 
cisely (in Greek 6supog) the theorist f 

Common notions are not necessarily common-sense. 

The great discrepancy in the results of what are called 
Experience and Common-sense, as contradistinguished from 
theory, is accounted for by the fact, that men are so formed 
as often unconsciously to reason, whether well or ill, on the 
phenomena they observe, and to mix up their inferences with 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS'. 171 

their statements of those phenomena ; so as in fact to theo- 
rize (however scantily or crudely) without knowing it. Hence 
it is that several different men, who have all had equal, or 
even the very same, experience, i. e., have been witnesses or 
agents in the same transactions, will often be found to 
resemble so many different men looking at the same book : 
the object that strikes the eye is to all the same ; the differ- 
ence of the impressions produced on the mind of each is 
referable to the difference in their minds, and proportionate 
to the different degrees of their knowledge of the characters, 
the language, and the subject. 

Most, if not all, who attain to a certain point of intellec- 
tual excellence have passed through two previous stages. 
The first is, that in which a man judges from obvious 
external appearances, adopts implicitly established notions 
and practices, assents without inquiry, and sees without much 
observation, or, at least, obsirves without much ambition to 
account for phenomena. 

In the second stage, he eagerly examines, and endeavours 
to account for, everything ; instead of being content with 
ignorance, he thinks his capacities equal to everything : he 
hastily rejects vulgar prejudices, and ridicules established 
customs, and is for altering, and reforming, and perfecting 
everything. The third state, which is that of mature judg- 
ment and enlarged views, though the most remote from the 
first, yet practically reapproaches to it : he now perceives the 
origin of many common notions and practices, and the utility 
even of many which are erroneous ; he does many things and 
believes many things in common with the vulgar, though on 
different grounds ; he has just that degree of respect for 
popular belief as neither to adopt nor reject it hastily; and 
he discriminates accurately where truth and falsehood, right 



172 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

and worng, are blended : lie perceives the bonds of Imman 
capacity, and attempts not to explain what is beyond it ; he 
perceives that many things which appear at first sight (or 
rather at second sight) faulty, are best as they are ; and of 
those alterations which are really desirable, he perceives 
what are, and what are not, attainable. These three states 
may not unaptly be compared to those of the grub, chrysalis, 
and butterfly. The narrow vicAvs and lazy, implicit belief 
of the first state, are closely correspondent to the condition 
of the crawling grub, confined to the plant on Avhich he was 
hatched, devouring it leaf after leaf, and minding nothing 
beyond : the chrysalis, wrapped in a fine web of his own 
spinning, neither increasing in bulk nor providing for the 
continuance of the species, and lost to all useful purposes, 
except the gradual inward change which is preparing him for 
a subsequent development, is not unlike some modifications 
of that above-mentioned second stage of intellect ; in which 
a man is disgusted with common notions and practices, with- 
out having yet formed a better system of his own ; is en- 
tangled and enclosed in fine-spun speculations, which with- 
hold him from practical utility, and is, for a time, withdrawn 
from the world, in self-sufiicient and torpid retirement. In 
some, however, this second stage assumes a more busy and 
bustling character, and raises them to a higher and more 
active condition than their first : they take a wider range 
than before ; they attain general improvement, and approach, 
not only really but visibly, to their last point of perfection ; 
these correspond to that more active chrysalis state with some 
insects, viz., the gnat, experience. The chrysalis of the gnat, 
instead of lying torpid or crawling at the bottom of the 
water, like the grub, darts about in that element with an 
agility, which seems an obvious approach to the brisk and 
airy range of the finished insect. 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 173 

The third state of intellect — that of the sound and en- 
lightened ]3hilosopher — is strikingly similar to that of the 
butterfly and the other various tribes of winged insects : their 
boundless range through the air ; the brilliant wings, esj^eci- 
ally of the butterfly ; its delicate diet of honey, and elegant 
apparatus for procuring it ; its light hovering from flower to 
flower, with a preference, however, for the plant which it 
sprang from, and on which it lays the eggs that are to pro- 
duce a future colony of creatures like itself: all correspond 
remarkably (as well as the curious Grreek name of -^^ux^) ^i^h 
the richly-stored and cultivated mind, the refined and lofty 
pursuits, the extensive range and enlarged views of the 
philosopher, as also with his partial return, though on new 
principles and, as it were, hovering on wings, to his first 
notions and practices, together with his useful exertions for 
the transmission of knowledge, and enjoyment, and for the 
general good of his species. 

In using the above comparison, Avhich will be found not 
only entertaining, but extremely convenient, in saving long 
descriptions by a mere allusion to it, two modifications are 
to be kept in view ; — First, that the changes from one of 
these states to another are not (as in the insect) entire and 
complete; and, second, that they frequently never take place 
at all. Thus you will find, indeed, most frequently, that he 
who is a butterfly in some points, is in others a chrysalis, and 
in some, perhaps, still a grub, all at the same time ; that 
many remain all their lives in the chrysalis state, and many 
more live and die grubs. They go to church, &c., as if there 
was a certain magical efficacy in the external forms of reli- 
gion ; they have a blind, instinctive veneration for their 
governors and others, their superiors; adhere to the estab- 
lished order of things, because it is established, and perform 
a certain routine of duties, because they have been accustomed 
15* 



174 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

to do SO, and have been told that they ought ; these are a 
very useful set of people, as far as they go, and, frequently, 
act and believe much more wisely than they are themselves 
aware. The chrysalis, on the contrary, is often a dangerous 
or useless animal ; for under this head corne all wanton inno- 
vators, infidels, democrats, projectors, &c. Such also are 
hermits, monks, misanthropes, sentimentalists, and castle- 
builders. Nothing indeed can be more likely to lead to 
absurd or mischievous conclusions, than a want of self-dis- 
trust, and a disposition to reject, with indiscriminate con- 
tempt, whatever has a mixture of error and imperfection, 
without perceiving, selecting, and retaining the good which 
is to be found in it ; and this is exactly the temper of men 
in the chrysalis state,— they want caedouk. 

Children are the to-morrow of society. 

If we would but duly take care of children, grown people 
would generally take care of themselves. 

Those who discountenance the education of the poor would 
do well to consider that it was (so to speak) the great boast 
of the Author and Finisher of our faith, that " to the poor 
the Gospel was preached;" so that if His religion be not 
really calculated for these. His pretensions must have been 
unfounded. Thus the very truth of His divine mission is at 
issue on this question. 

Any one who says (with Mandeville in his treatise against 
charity-schools), "If a horse knew as much as a man, I 
should not like to be his rider," ought to add, "If a man 
knew as little as a horse, I should not like to trust him to 
ride." 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 175 

It is not the knowledge of something that does harm, but 
the iarnoi'ance of others. It is not the cultivation of this 

o 

faculty, but the neglect of that. In rickety children, it is 
not that the head, or the trunk, has grown too much, but 
that the limbs have not kept pace with it. 

If any of the mental faculties be overgrown, it is well to 
amputate it, in order to save the rest. It should be banished 
by a kind of ostracism, as the best of the Athenian citizens 
were, for the benefit of the community. 

There is a faculty, or, if you will, a quality of the faculties, 
which well deserves a distinct name ; for it is in itself dis- 
tinct ; i. e., is not implied in any other. It is of great 
practical value, and it forms a striking feature in the char- 
acter of those who possess it. The word " grasp" has been 
used to express it ; perhaps " Totality" would be the most 
readily understood. But it ought to have some name gene- 
rally agreed on. It is the power of taking in the whole of a 
subject, as a whole ; of contemplating many things together 
in their mutual relations ; of referring any individual object 
presented to the mind, to the system, &c., with which it is 
connected, just as Cuvier, from a single fragment of a bone 
can describe the whole animal : it is a power, not merely of 
collecting and recalling the various parts of a subject, but 
of so arranging and combining them, as to contemplate a 
single whole. This talent may be compared to that of a 
general, in whom, perhaps, the chief point of skill is, not to 
let his troops fight in detail, but to bear in his mind at once 
the situation of each separate corps, absent or present, their 
means of communication and mutual support, and the hostile 
posts which they may command or be exposed to. There is, 
perhaps, no faculty so much the gift of nature as Totality 



176 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

(or eusynopticity ?) It may be improved by education ; but 
when it is deficient, all the pains that can be taken will go 
a less way towards remedying that defect than almost any 
other. And persons of no education at all, will frequently 
possess it in a high degree, though, of course, from their 
limited knowledge and want of cultivation, they have much 
less opportunity of using and displaying it. It has been 
remarked by a very acute observer, that sometimes one 
peasant will be struck with several brilliant passages in a 
sermon, and, perhaps, be able to repeat them, without having 
the least notion of the general outline of argument ; while 
another, though he cannot repeat a single sentence, will be 
able to give a correct account of the drift of the whole discourse. 
— For it is not, in general, found that this talent is united with 
a particularly quick perception, and ready recollection of 
particulars as such, — though it will enable its possessors 
most wonderfully to outdo thoge of far better individual 
memory, in the attainment and retention of things which can 
be formed into a system, and, as it were, tied together into 
a bunch. In this respect it is like an ear for music, (which 
indeed in its own way may bo called a species thereof,) for I 
do not know that those who have an ear retain single sounds 
better than others ; but they are enabled to retain a vast 
number, by means of their mutual relation in a tune. That 
their remembrance of a tune is not the collective remem- 
brance of the individual notes, but of their mutual relation, 
is quite evident from this, that if they begin any tune in a 
higher or lower note than they heard it, they will go all 
through, the same, and thus bring out notes which, it is con- 
ceivable, they never heard in their lives. 

This talent is in all points of view immensely imjjortant : 
it constitutes almost the Avhole excellence of some who are 
universally allowed to be very superior men ; whom ordinary 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 177 

people would be content to call sensible, able, judicious, 
clever, &c., without being able to fix upon the very circum- 
stance that constitutes them such, or to point out any one 
quality in which they much surpass others. This is the talent 
requisite, above all others, to form a politician, or any one 
who is concerned in any architectonic study. A person who 
holds any such leading office as that of a statesman, &c., 
and has not this talent, will be so far from turning to good 
account the other talents he may possess, that they will only 
tend to make him more mischievous ; for ho will be the better 
able to accomplish, with skill, the petty and partial schemes, 
and defend the narrow and short-sighted measures to which 
he will inevitably be inclined. The more clever a man is, if 
he is not wise, (wisdom, I think, expresses, or at least im- 
plies, that species of totality which is concerned in practice,) 
the more harm he will do, even though his intentions are 
good. But if a leading man possesses this talent, he will do 
very well without a large portion of any other ; for there 
will be found plenty of men capable of conducting the details 
of business with great skill, though they have not a particle 
of totality, and are perhaps all the better without it. A 
good farmer may easily get labourers who can guide a plough 
or sow turnips better than himself, whereas one who is ever 
so skilful in these operations may manage the farm very ill. 
Those who do not possess this faculty will sometimes 
admire those who do, without Avell knowing Avhy : but gene- 
rally they underrate them, unless they also excel in other 
points. What is true of some other faculties, (with wit it is, 
I believe, rather the reverse,) is much more so of this, that 
no one can estimate it sufficiently but those who jDossess it 
themselves ; for it is very closely and naturally connected 
with that candour which puts a fair and full value on each 
various kind of excellence — on the " diversity of gifts of tho 



178 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

same Spirit ;" and those who want it are apt to limit their 
admiration to excellence in their own province, or, at least, 
in some one definite province, as they are not qualified even 
to form an adequate conception of this talent. He who feels 
the want of it, and craves after it, and admires those who 
are distinguished for it, is not entirely destitute of it. It 
may be possessed by a man in some particular pursuit, but 
not generally : it is, perhaps, most common in the mathema- 
tical sciences, from the definite, invariable, and demonstrable 
relation which, in them, one truth bears to another: it is 
most rare and precious in the affairs of life, from their being 
of an opposite nature. In these, the faculty assumes a most 
dignified rank, higher, perhaps, than any other whatever. 
When very general, and possessed in a high degree, it is, I 
think, necessarily connected with a very exalted tone of 
piety ; the want of it is peculiarly apt to lead men of narrow 
ingenuity, of confined and partial speculations, into scepti- 
cism. In short, Totality forms the very wings of the butter- 
fly ; according as they are unexpanded or are wanting, you 
will remain in the chrysalis state, either for the time, or per- 
manently. 

To contemplate any subject in all its relations, and as a 
part of one great whole, is so far from leading to inaccuracy, 
that it is the best guard against it. A man of real totality 
has a microscope, as well as a telescope, always at hand. 

The power of duly appreciating little things belongs to a 
great mind : a narrow-minded man has it not, for to him they 
are great things. 

To wander from a subject, and to take an enlarged view 
of it, are quite distinct. No two things are more different 
than a rambling and a comprehensive mind. 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 179 

The poet's remedies for the dangers of a little learning, 
"Drink deep, or taste not," are both of them impossible. 
None can drink deep enough to be anything more than very 
superficial ; and every human being, that is not a downright 
idiot, must taste. 

As it is evident that a man cannot learn all things per- 
fectly, it seems best for a man to make some pursuit his main 
object, according to, 1st, his calling, 2nd, his natural bent, 
or, 3rd, his opportunities ; then, let him get a slight know- 
ledge of what else is worth it, regulated in his choice by the 
same three circumstances ; which would, also, determine, in 
great measure, where an elementary, and where a superficial, 
knowledge is desirable. Such as are of the most dignified 
and philosophical nature, are the most proper for elementary 
study ; and such as Ave are the most likely to be called upon 
to practise for ourselves, the most proper for superficial : e. g., 
it would be to most men of no practical use, and, conse- 
quently, not worth while, to learn by heart the meaning of 
some of the Chinese characters ; but it might be very well 
worth while to study the principles on which that most 
singular language is constructed : contra ; there is nothing 
very curious or interesting in the structure of the Portuguese 
language ; but if one was going to travel there, it would be 
worth while to pick up some words and phrases. If both 
circumstances conspire, then, both kinds of information are 
to be sought ; viz., something at the beginning and something 
at the end. 

Grammar, logic, rhetoric, and metaphysics, or the philoso- 
phy of mind, are manifestly studies of an elementary nature, 
being concerned about the instruments which we employ in 
effecting our purposes ; and ethics, which is, in fact, a branch 



180 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

of metapbysics, may be called the elements of conduct. Such 
knowledge is far from showy : elements do not much come 
into sight ; they are like that part of a bridge which is under 
water, and is therefore least admired, though it is not the 
work of least art and difficulty. On this ground it is suitable 
to females, as least leading to that pedantry which learned 
ladies must ever be peculiarly liable to, as well as least 
exciting that jealousy to which they must ever be exposed, 
while learning in them continues to be a distinction. A 
woman might, in this way, be very learned without any one's 
finding it out. 

Smattering is applied to two opposites : elementary know- 
ledge and superficial knowledge ; some things should be 
learned a little at both ends. 

To learn a thing because it is easy, is like buying a 
bargain — purchasing what you do not want because you can 
get it cheaper than what you do want. 

Some pursuits are more valuable themselves than the 
object which is pursued, and which gives them their whole 
value. 

The analytical method is the best to introduce knowledge ; 
the synthetical, to perfect and retain it. 

Of many parts of learning, it might be said, " Take care 
of the easy things, and the hard ones will take care of them- 
selves." The way to make out a difficulty is not to puzzle 
at it, but to familiarize yourself with those parts which you 
understand, till they gradually throw light on the more 
obscure. In learning a language, read easy books with great 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 181 

care and attention ; and such a knowledge will be acquii'ed 
as may be aj^pUed, with the greatest advantage, to harder 
ones : the same rule applies to learning grammar also, e. g., 
the anomalous verbs should never be learned, until the cliinie 
of the regular verbs is as familiar as the alphabet. 

Old Lily's method is too often neglected, who advises, in 
his preface to his grammar, not to make a boy go through 
all his rules in the first place, " but rather let him read some 
pretie booke," so that the rules may be learnt as he sees the 
want of them. 

Our ancestors (and still more recently the continental 
nations) were guilty of the absurdity of dressing up children 
in wigs, swords, huge buckles, hoops, ruffles, and all the 
elaborate full-dressed finery of grown-up people of that day. 
It is surely reasonable that the analogous absurdity in 
greater matters also, — among the rest, in that part of educa- 
tion, the exercises in composition of young students, — should 
be laid aside, and that we should in all points consider what 
is appropriate to each difierent period of life. 

The young person who, by the exercise of Debating 
Societies, is hurried into a habit of fluent elocution — of ready 
extemporaneous speaking, which consists in thinking ex- 
tempore — will be found to have been qualifying himself only 
for " the lion's part" in the interlude of Pja-amus and Thisbe. 
" Snug. — Have you the lion's part written ? Pray you, if 
it be, give it me ; for I am slow of study. Quince. — You may 
do it extempore ; for it is nothing but roaring." 

To those engaged in Debating Societies, the temptation is 
very strong to transgress the rule, which every speaker ought 
16 



182 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

to observe, of never allowing himself, in one of these mock 
debates, to maintain anything that he himself believes to be 
untrue, or to use an argument which he perceives to be fal- 
lacious ; because, to such persons as usually form the 
majority in one of those societies, — youths of immature 
judgment, superficial, and half-educated, — specious falsehood 
and sophistry will often appear superior to truth and sound 
reasoning, and will call forth louder plaudits ; and the wrong 
side of a question will often afford room for such a capti- 
vating show of ingenuity, as to be to them more easily main- 
tained than the right. And scruples of conscience, relative 
to veracity and fairness, are not unlikely to be silenced by 
the consideration that, after all, it is no real battle, but a 
tournament ; there being no real and important measure to 
be actually decided on, but only a debate carried on for 
practice' sake. 

But, unreal as is the occasion, and insignificant as may be 
the particular point, a habit may be formed which will not 
easily be unlearnt afterwards — the habit, so debasing to the 
moral character, of disregarding right reason, and truth, and 
fair argument. 

The defect of mathematics as an exclusive or too predomi- 
nant study, is, that it has no connection with human affairs, 
and affords no exercise of judgment, having no degrees of 
probability. 

The student of any branch of knowledge is liable to seek 
for a solution of every question on every subject by a refer- 
ence to his own favourite science ; like a school-boy when 
first intrusted with a knife, who is for trying its edge on 
everything that comes in his way. 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 183 

To attempt improving, by increased knowledge, a man who 
does not know how to make use of what he already has, is 
like seeking to enlarge the prospect of a short-sighted man 
by taking him to the top of a hill. 

The first business of a teacher, — first, not only in point 
of time, but of importance, — should be to excite not merely 
a general curiosity on the subject of study, but a particular 
curiosity on particular points in that subject. 

To teach one who has no curiosity to learn, is to sow a 
field without ploughing it. 

Curiosity is as much the parent of attention, as attention 
is of memory. 

Education, as usually conducted, is addressed to the 
memory alone ; and that is the reason, one reason at least, 
why clever boys, as they are supposed to be, do not turn out 
clever men, and vice versa. If a boy remembers all that is 
told him, he does as much as is usually required of him ; and 
no wonder, for he is told just everything, and is never called 
upon to exert his own powers except in retaining ; and then 
it is made a wonder that a person who has been so well 
taught, and who, perhaps, was quick in learning and remem- 
bering, should not prove an able man : which is about as 
reasonable as to expect that a capacious cistern, if filled, 
should be converted into a perennial fountain. 

Many are saved by the deficiency of their memory from 
being spoiled by their education. 

Among the intellectual qualifications for the study of His- 
tory, the importance of a vivid imagination is greatly, if not 



184 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

•wholly, overlooked. Most persons have been accustomed to 
consider Imagination as having no other office than to feign 
and falsify ; and therefore, that it must tend to pervert the 
truth of History and to mislead the judgment.— On the con- 
trary, our view of any transaction, especially one that is re- 
mote in time or place, will necessarily be imperfect, generally 
incorrect, unless it embrace something more than the bare 
outline of the occurrences, — unless we have before the mind 
a lively idea of the scenes in which the events took place, the 
habits of thought and of feeling of the actors, and all the 
circumstances connected with the transaction; unless, in 
short, we can in a considerable degree transport ourselves 
out of our own age, and country, and persons, and imagine 
ourselves the agents or spectators. It is from consideration 
of all these circumstances that we are enabled to form a 
right judgment as to the facts which History records, and to 
derive instruction from it. What we imagine may indeed be 
merely imaginary, that is, unreal ; but it may again be what 
actually does or did exist. To say that Imagination, if not 
regulated by sound judgment and sufficient knowledge, may 
chance to convey to us false impressions of past events, is 
only to say that man is fallible. But such false impressions 
are even much the more likely to take possession of those 
whose imagination is feeble or uncultivated. They are apt 
to imagine the things, persons, times, countries, &c., which 
they read of, as much less diffi3rent from what they see 
around them, than is really the case. 

It is worthy of remark, in reference to that kind of Proba- 
bility — the "Plausible" or "Natural," — that men are apt 
to judge amiss of situations, persons, and circumstances, 
concerning which they have no exact knowledge, by applying 
to these the measure of their own feelings and experience : 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 185 

the result of which is, that a correct account of these will 
often appear to them unnatural, and an erroneous one natu- 
ral : e. g., a, person born with the usual endowments of the 
senses is apt to attribute to the blind-born and the deaf- 
mutes, such habits of thought, and such a state of mind, as 
his own would be, if he were to become deaf or blind, or to be 
left in the dark : which would be very wide of the truth. 
That a man born blind would not, on obtaining sight, know 
apart, on seeing them, a ball and a cube, which he had been 
accustomed to handle, nor distinguish the dog from the cat, 
would appear to most persons unacquainted with the result 
of experiments much less "natural" than the reverse. So 
it is also with those brought up free, in reference to the 
feelings and habits of thought of born slaves ; with civilized 
men in reference to savages ; and of men living in society, in 
reference to one who passes whole years in total solitude. I 
have no doubt that the admirable fiction of Robinson Crusoe 
would have been not only much less amusing, but to most 
readers less apparently natural, if Friday and the other 
savages had been represented Avith the indocility and other 
qualities which really belong to such beings as the Brazilian 
cannibals, and if the hero himself had been represented with 
that half-brutish, apathetic despondency and carelessness 
about all comforts demanding steady exertion, which are the 
really natural results of a life of utter solitude, and if he had 
been described as almost losing the use of his own language 
instead of remembering the Spanish. 

Again, I remember mentioning to a very intelligent man 
the description given by the earliest missionaries to New 
Zealand, of their introduction of the culture of wheat ; which 
he derided as an absurd fabrication, but which appeared to 
me what might have been reasonably conjectured. The 
savages w^ere familiar with bread in the form of ship-biscuit ; 
16* 



186 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

and accordingly, roots being alone cultivated by them, and 
furnishing their chief food, they expected to find at the roots 
of the wheat tubers, which could be made into biscuits. They 
accordingly dug up the wheat, and were mortified at the 
failure of their hopes. The idea of collecting small seeds, 
pulverizing these, and making the powder into a paste which 
was to be hardened by fire, was quite foreign from all their 
experience. Yet here an unnatural representation would to 
many have appeared the more natural. 

Much pains, therefore, must in many cases be taken in 
giving such explanations as may put men on their guard 
against this kind of mistake, and enable them to see the 
improbability, and sometimes utter impossibility, of what, at 
the first glance, they will be apt to regard as perfectly natu- 
ral, and to satisfy them that something which they were dis- 
posed to regard as extravagantly unnatural is just what 
might have been reasonably expected. 

In works of fiction there is a distinction to be made 
between the unnatural and the merely improhalle. A 
fiction is unnatural when there is some assignable reason 
against the events taking place as described, — when men are 
represented as acting contrary to the character assigned 
them, or to human nature in general ; as when a young lady 
of seventeen, brought up in ease, luxury and retirement, with 
no companions but the narrow-minded and illiterate, displays 
(as a heroine usually does) under the most trying circum- 
stances, such wisdom, fortitude, and knowledge of the world, 
as the best instructors and the best examples can rarely 
produce, without the aid of more mature age and longer 
experience. — Indeed, one way in which the unnatural is often 
made to appear, for a time, natural, is by giving a lively and 
striking description which is correct in its several parts, and 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 187 

unnatural onl j when these are combined into a zvliole ; like 
a painter who should give an exact picture of an English 
country-house, of a grove of palm-trees, an elephant, and an 
iceberg, all in the same landscape. Thus, a vivid represen- 
tation of a den of infamy and degradation, and of an 
ingenious and well-disposed youth, may each be, in itself, so 
natural as to dravs^ off for a time the attention from tlie 
absurdity of making the one ai'ise out of the other. — But a 
fiction is still improbable, though not unnatural, when there 
is no reason to be assigned why things should not take place 
as rej)resented, except that the overbalance of chances is 
against it ; the hero meets, in his utmost distress, most 
opportunely with the very person to whom he had formerly 
done a signal service, and who happens to communicate to 
him a piece of intelligence which sets all to rights. Why 
should he not meet him as well as any one else ? All that 
can be said is, that there is no reason why he should : This 
distinction may be plainly perceived in the events of real 
life ; when anything takes place of such a nature as we 
should call in a fiction merely improbable, because there are 
many chances against it, we call it a lucky or unlucky 
accident, a singular coincidence, something very extraordi- 
nary, odd, curious, &c., whereas anything which, in a fiction, 
would be called unnatural when it actually occurs (and such 
things do occur), is still called unnatural, inexplicable, unac- 
countable, inconceivable, &c., epithets which are not applied 
to events that have merely the balances of chances against 
them. 

A novel or tale may be compared to a picture ; a fable to 
a device. 

Poetry is imitative of prose, in the same manner as 
singing of ordinary speaking, and dancing of ordinary action. 



188 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEaMS. 

Considering that Proverbs have been current in all ages 
and countries, it is a curious circumstance that so much 
difference of opinion should exist as to the utility, and as to 
the design of them. Some are accustomed to speak as if 
Proverbs contained a sort of concentrated essence of the 
wisdom of all ages, which will enable any one to judge and 
act aright on every emergency. But that Proverbs are not 
generally regarded, by those who use them, as necessarily 
propositions of universal and acknowledged truth, like mathe- 
matical axioms, is plain from the circumstance that many of 
those most in use, are, like the common-places of Bacon, 
opposed to each other ; as, e. g., " Take care of the pence, 
and the pounds will take care of themselves;" to "Be not 
penny-wise and pound-foolish ;" and again, " The more haste, 
the worse speed;" or, "Wait awhile, that we may make an 
end the sooner ;" to " Take time by the forelock," or, " Time 
and tide for no man bide," &c. 

It seems, I think, to be practically understood, that a 
Proverb is merely a compendious expression of some princi- 
ple which will usually be, in different cases, and with or 
without certain modifications, true or false, applicable or 
inapplicable. When then a Proverb is introduced, the 
speaker usually employs it as a major-premise, and is under- 
stood to imply, as a minor, that the principle thus referred 
to is applicable in the existing case. And what is gained by 
the employment of the Proverb, is, that his judgment and 
his reasons for it are conveyed, through the use of a well- 
hnoivn form of expression, clearly, and at the same time in 
an incomparably shorter space, than if he had had to explain 
his meaning in expressions framed for the occasion. And 
the brevity thus obtained is often still further increased by 
suppressing the full statement even of the very proverb 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 189 

itself, if a very common one, and merely alluding to it in a 
word or two. 

Proverbs, accordingly, are somewhat analogous to those 
medical formulas, which, being in frequent use, are kept 
ready made up in the chemist's shops, and which often save 
the framing of a distinct prescription. 

Cultivate not only the corn-fields of your mind, but the 
pleasure-grounds also. 

Every faculty and every study, however worthless they 
may be, when not employed in the service of God — however 
debased and polluted, when devoted to the service of sin — 
become ennobled and sanctified when directed, by one Avhose 
constraining motive is the love of Christ, towards a good 
object. Let not the Christian then think "scorn of the 
pleasant land :" — that land is the field of ancient and modern 
literature — of philosophy, in almost all its departments — of 
the arts of reasoning and persuasion. — Every part of it 
may be cultivated with advantage, as the land of Canaan 
Avhen bestowed upon God's peculiar people. They were not 
commanded to let it lie waste, as incurably polluted by the 
abominations of its first inhabitants ; but to cultivate it, and 
dwell in it, living in obedience to the divine laws, and 
dedicating its choicest fruits to the Lord their God. 

It is a great mistake, often made in practice, if not in 
theory, to suppose that a child's character, intellectual and 
moral,- is formed by those books only which we put into his 
hands with that design. As hardly anything can accident- 
ally touch the soft clay without stamping its mark on it, so 
hardly any reading can interest a child, without contributing 
in some degree, though the book itself be afterwards totally 



190 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

forgotten, to form the character ; and the parents, therefore, 
■who, merely requunng from him a certain course of study, 
pay little or no attention to story-books, are educating him 
they know not how. 

Those works of fiction are worse than unprofitable that 
inculcate morality, with an exclusion of all reference to 
religious principle. This is obviously and notoriously the 
character of Miss Edgeworth's moral tales. And so entire 
and resolute is this exclusion, that it is maintained at the 
expense of what may be called poetical truth : it destroys, 
in many instances, the probability of the tale, and the natu- 
ralness of the characters. That Christianity doea exist, 
every one must believe as an incontrovertible truth ; nor can 
any one deny that, whether true or false, it does exercise, at 
least is supposed to exercise, an influence on the feelings and 
conduct of some of the believers in it. To represent, there- 
fore, persons of various ages, sex, country, and station in life, 
as practising, on the most trying occasions, every kind of 
duty, and encountering every kind of danger, difficulty and 
hardship, while none of them ever makes the least reference 
to a religious motive, is as decidedly at variance with reality 
— what is called in works of fiction unnatural — as it would be 
to represent Mahomet's enthusiastic followers as rushing into 
battle without any thought of his promised paradise. This, 
therefore, is a blemish in point of art Avhich every reader, 
possessing taste, must perceive, whatever may be his reli- 
gious or non-religious persuasion. But a far higher, and 
more important, question than that of taste is involved. For 
though Miss Edgeworth may entertain opinions which would 
not permit her, Avith consistency, to attribute more to the 
influence of religion than she has done ; and in that case 
may stand acquitted, inforo conscientice, of wilfully suppress- 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 191 

ing anything which she acknowledges to be true and im- 
portant ; yet, as a writer, it must still be considered as a 
great blemish, in the eyes at least of those who think diffe- 
rently, that virtue should be studiously inculcated, Avith 
scarcely any reference to what they regard as the mainspring 
of it — that vice should be traced to every other source 
except the want of religious principle — that the most radical 
change from worthlessness to excellence should be represented 
as wholly independent of that Agent, Avhich they consider as 
the only one that can accomplish it — and that consolation 
under affliction should be represented as derived from every 
source, except the one which they look to as the only true 
and sure one : — "Is it not because there is no God in Israel, 
that ye have sent to enquire of Baalzebub, the God of 
Ekron ?" This vital defect in such works should be con- 
stantly pointed out to the young reader ; and he should be 
warned that, to realize the picture of noble, disinterested, 
thorough-going virtue, presented in such and such an 
instance, it is absolutely necessary to resort to those princi- 
ples which, in these fictions, are unnoticed. He should, in 
short, be reminded that all these " things that are lovely and 
of good report," which have been placed before him, are 
the genuine fruits of the Holy Land ; though the spies who 
have brought them bring also an evil report of that land, 
and would persuade us to remain wandering in the wilderness. 

In books designed for children, there are two extremes 
that should be avoided. The one, that reference to religious 
principles in connection with matters too trifling and undig- 
nified, arising from a well-intentioned zeal, causing a forget- 
fulness of the maxim, whose notorious truth has made it pro- 
verbial, " Too much familiarity breeds contempt;" and the 
other is the contrary, and still more prevailing, extreme, 



192 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

arising from the desire to preserve a due reverence for re- 
ligion, at the expense of its useful application in conduct. 
But a line may be drawn which will keep clear of both ex- 
tremes. We should not exclude the association of things 
sacred with whatever are to ourselves trifling matters, (for 
"these little things are great" to children,) but, with what- 
ever is viewed by them as trifling. Every thing is great or 
small in reference to the parties concerned. The private 
concerns of any obscure individual are very insignificant to 
the world at large ; but they are of great importance to him- 
self. And all worldly affairs must be small in the sight of 
the Most High ; but irreverent familiarity is engendered in 
the mind of any one, then, and then only, when things 
sacred are associated with such as are, to him, insignificant 
trifles. 

Any direct attempt at moral teaching, in a fictitious narra- 
tive, and any attempt whatever to give scientific information 
will, unless managed with the utmost discretion, interfere 
with what, after all, is the immediate object of the writer of 
fiction, as of the poet, to please. If instruction do not join 
as a volunteer, she will do no good service. Some tales put 
one in mind of those clocks and watches which are con- 
demned " a double or a treble debt to pay ;" which, besides 
their legitimate object, to show the hour, tell you the day ofj 
the month or the week, give you a landscape for a dial 
plate, with the second-hand forming the sails of a windmill, 
or have a barrel to play a tune, or an alarum to remind you 
of an engagement ; all very good things in their way : but 
so it is, that these watches never tell the time so well as 
those, in which that is the exclusive object of the maker. 
Every additional movement is an obstacle to the original 
design. 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 193 

I doubt Tvlietlier Sliakspeare ever had any thought at all of 
making his personages speak characteristically. In most in- 
stances, I conceive — probably in all — he drew characters 
correctly, because he could not avoid it; and would never 
have attained, in that department, such excellence as he has, 
if he had made any studied efforts for it. And the same 
probably may be said of Homer, and of those other writers 
who have excelled the most in delineating characters. 
Shakspeave's peculiar genius consisted chiefly, I conceive, in 
his forming the same distinct and consistent idea of an ima- 
ginary person, that an ordinary man forms of a real and 
well-known individual. We usually conjecture, pretty accu- 
rately, concerning a very intimate acquaintance, how he 
would speak or act on any supposed occasion ; if any one 
should report to us his having done or said something quite 
out of character, we should at once be struck with the in- 
consistency, and we often represent to ourselves, and describe 
to others, without any conscious effort, not only the substance 
of what he would have been likely to say, but even his 
characteristic phrases and looks. Sliakspeare could no more 
have endured an ^expression from the lips of Macbeth, incon- 
sistent with the character originally conceived, than an ordi- 
nary man could attribute to his most respectable acquaint- 
ance the behaviour of a ruffian, or to a human being, the 
voice of a bird, or to a European, the features and hue of a 
negro. Merely from the vividness of the original concep- 
tion, characteristic conduct and language spontaneously 
suggested themselves to the great dramatist's pen. He called 
his personages into being, and left them, as it were, to speak 
and act for themselves. 

It is no fool that can describe fools well. To invent 
indeed a conversation full of wisdom or of wit, requires that 
17 



194 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

the writer should himself possess ability : but the converse 
does not hold good. Many who have succeeded pretty well 
in painting superior characters, have failed in giving indi- 
viduality to those weaker ones, which it is necessary to in- 
troduce in order to give a faithful representation of real life ; 
they exhibit to us mere folly in the abstract, forgetting that 
to the eye of a skilful naturalist, the insects on a leaf present 
as wide differences as exist between the elephant and the 
lion. Slender, and Shallow, and Aguecheek, as Shakspeare 
has painted them, though equally fools, resemble one another 
no more than Richard, and Macbeth, and Julius Csesar. 

Biography is allowed on all hands, to be one of the most 
attractive and profitable kinds of reading : now novels of the 
highest class being a kind of fictitious biography, bear the 
same relation to the real, that epic and tragic poetry, accord- 
ing to Aristotle, bear to history ; they present us (supposing 
of course, each perfect in its kind) with the general, instead 
of the particular, — the probable, instead of the true ; and, by 
leaving out those accidental irregularities, and exceptions to 
general rules, which constitute the many iaaprobabilities of 
real narrative, present us with a clear and abstracted view 
of the general rules themselves ; and thus concentrate, as it 
were, into a small compass, the net result of wide experience. 

Geologists complain that when they want specimens of the 
common rocks of a country, they receive curious spars ; just 
so, historians give us the extraordinary events, and omit 
just what we want — the every-day life of each particular 
time and country. 

He who knoAvs two languages is a higher being than he 
who knows but one ; and the more dissimilar the better. 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 195 

One great advantage in studying philosophical works in a 
foreign language, is that an idea which one has to compre- 
hend, or express, in a foreign language, is more distinctly 
understood by the mind, and the errors arising from the 
ambiguity, and other defects of language, more easily de- 
tected. — Many a voluminous treatise, the Author would 
throw into the fire, if he could but be persuaded to translate 
it into Greek. Besides this prevention of the errors arising 
from the ambiguity of language, the very difficulty excites 
the attention so as to fix the thoughts better in the memory ; 
meat that requires a good deal of chewing, is sometimes 
more digestible and nutritive, than spoon-meat that is swal- 
lowed whole. 

In the Portuguese language there are two words, "ser" 
and "estar," both answering to the English "to be;" and 
foreigners are often much perplexed about the proper use of 
each. The rule, how^ever, is a logical one, easily remembered : 
"estar" furnishes the copula when the predicate is a separa- 
ble accident, and "ser," in all other cases. For instance, 
" Estar in Inghilteria" is " to be in England ;" Ser Inglez is 
" to be a native of England." Of these two examples, the 
form^er is what logicians call a sejjarable accident, because it 
may be separated from the individual : [e. g., he may leave 
England ;) the latter is an inseparable accident, being not 
separable from the individual, [i. e., he who is a native of 
England can never be otherwise.) So also " Quern e .^" 
" who is he ?" " Quem esta la ?" " who is there ?" 

Learning a language from its poets is like studying Botany 
in a garden of double flowers. 

The chief use of the Classics is, that they afford a fixed 
Standard of taste by which we may regulate our judgment, 



196 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

and this without servilely adhering to the ancient models. — 
We need not steer direct for the fixed point, but by always 
observing our bearing to it, many eccentricities of our course 
will be prevented. Besides this, the study of them affords 
the same advantage, that the acquirement of a foreign lan- 
guage presents, for observing the various modes of thinking. 
in different nations, at different times. 

Language often contains monuments, not noticed till care- 
fully examined, of ancient laws, usages, and modes of 
thought, so old and forgotten, that the revival of them would 
be regarded as an innovation. The word "edification" is 
such a monument. There are many such of heathen super- 
stitions, e.g., Bacchanalian, Martials, Panic, Jovial, Hearth 
(from a Saxon Goddess, Hertha,) and the names of the days 
of the week. In England people talk of being afraid of " Tom 
Poker." This is Puck, or Pug, or Pooka ; or Bug, or Bogle, 
or Bugaboo ; in Buss Bog, which, being the word for a spirit, 
is applied to the Deity. 

The laws of rude nations, in ancient times, decreed, that 
the next of Jcin to the person murdered should have satisfac- 
tion, either by the death of the murderer, or by accepting 
(if he chose) a payment instead, just as if it had been his 
horse or ox that had been killed. Accordingly, the word 
"mercy" comes from the Latin "merces," a payment; and 
originally a man was not said to sJioiv or to hestoiv mercy, 
but to accept mercy ; that is, consent to spare another's life 
on receiving a ransom. 

The word " punishment" again, is derived from a word 
which, in Greek and in Latin, signified the payment of a 
ransom, compensation, or satisfaction. And in those lan- 
guages they did not speak of inflicting and suffering punish- 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 197 

ment, but of talcing vengeance, and paying the penalty {or 
damages) ■which "was done, either in money, (as is the law 
noAY,) or by submitting to blows or other personal chastise- 
ment, to gratify the desire of the sufferer for retaliation, 
(from the Latin "talis," like.) Hence also the Greek word, 
xaraXXctTTw which originally signified to "exchange," came to 
signify to "reconcile;" since it was, usually, by giving and 
accepting a compensation, or equivalent for an injury, that 
parties were reconciled. 

It will be often found that two of the meanings of a word 
will have no connexion with one another, but Avill each have 
some connexion with the third. Thus " martyr" originally 
signified a witness ; thence it was applied to those who 
suffered in bearing testimony to Christianity ; and thence 
again it is often applied to sufferers in general : the first and 
third significations are not the least connected. Thus "Past" 
signifies originally a pillar (postum from pono) ; then, a dis- 
tance marked out by posts.; and then, the carriages, messen- 
gers, &c., that travelled over this distance. 

In that phenomenon in language, that both in the Greek 
and Latin, nouns of the neuter gender, denoting things, in- 
variably had the nominative and the accusative the same, or 
rather, had an accusative only, employed as a nominative 
when required ; may there not be traced an indistinct con- 
sciousness of the persuasion that a mere thing is not capable 
of being an agent, which a i^erson only can really be, and 
that the possession of power, strictly so called, by physical 
causes is not conceivable, or their capacity to maintain, any 
more than to produce at first, the system of the Universe ? 
— whose continued existence, as well as its origin, seems to 
depend on the continued operation of the great Creator. — 
17* 



198 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

May there not be in tliis an admission that the Laws of 
Nature presuppose an agent, and are incapable of being the 
cause of their own observance? 

The heathen mythology contains among a chaos of wild 
fables, some broken and scattered fragments of true history, 
like the organic remains of an ancient world, found dispersed 
and often hard to be ascertained, in the midst of the strata 
formed from the deposits of a deluge. Such a fragment of 
truth is in the tradition respecting the discovery of fire by 
Prometheus, i. e., the Provident, — fire being probably no 
human discovery, but a gift of Providence in the way of a 
revelation. Again — Phoenix was the name given to an ima- 
ginary bird, which was fabled to live a thousand years, and 
then to take fire and burn to ashes, from which a new 
Phoenix arose. Now, as the Greek name for a palm was also 
phoenix, and as it is generally supposed that it was in a 
dwarf palm (one of the commonest shrubs in the wilderness 
of Sinai) that Moses saAV the manifestation of God, in a 
flame of fire, may not the fable of the bird have arisen from 
some obscure tradition of the joalm bush, which "burned 
with fire and yet was not consumed ?" It is remarkable, that 
in the eastern countries (more lately in Spain and Italy also) 
palm-branches have long been used on occasions of triumph 
or rejoicing, being reckoned an emblem of victory. 

It has always happened that, when public attention has 
been first directed to any new branch of knowledge, the re- 
sult has been something like the exuberant fecundity which 
Lucretius attributes to the earth at its first formation — a 
confused assemblage of mis-shapen monsters, interspersed 
with a few more perfectly formed beings, whose superior or- 
ganization enables them to survive the spontaneous destruo- 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 199 

tion of the rest. And when this mixture of truth and false- 
hood, of sound and unsound theories, is presented to the 
workl, it has ever been found that the timorous, the lazy, and 
the undistinguishing (no inconsiderable portion of mankind), 
have denied the Avhole indiscriminately, as a tissue of mis- 
chievous absurdities. 

In combating deep-rooted prejudices, and maintaining un- 
popular and paradoxical truths, the point to be aimed at 
should be, to adduce what is sufficient, and not much more 
than is sufficient, to prove your conclusion. If you can but 
satisfy men that your opinion is decidedly more probable than 
the opposite, you will have carried your point more effectually 
than if you go on, much beyond this, to demonstrate, by a 
multitude of the most forcible arguments, the extreme absur- 
dity of thinking differently, till you have affronted the self- 
esteem of some, and awakened the distrust of others. Some 
will be stung by a feeling of shame passing off into resent- 
ment, which stops their ears against argument. They would 
be so 8orry to think they had been blinded to such an excess, 
and are so angry with him who is endeavouring to persuade 
them to think so, that these feelings determine them not to 
think it. They try (and it is an attempt which few persons 
ever make in vain) to shut their eyes against an humiliating 
conviction : and thus, the very triumphant force of the 
reasoning adduced, serves to harden them against admitting 
the conclusion : much as one may conceive Roman soldiers 
desperately holding out an untenable fortress to the last ex- 
tremity, from apprehension of being made to pass under the 
yoke by the victors, should they surrender. Others, again, 
perhaps comparatively strangers to the question and not 
prejudiced against the conclusion set forth too strongly, will 
sometimes have their suspicions roused by this very circum- 



200 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

stance. " Can it be possible," they will say, " that such a 
conclusion, so very obvious as this is made to appear, should 
not have been admitted long ago ? Is it conceivable that 
such and such eminent philosophers, divines, statesmen, &;c., 
should have been all their lives under delusions so gross?" 
Hence, they are apt to infer, either that the author has mis- 
taken the opinions of those he imagines opposed to him ; or 
else, that there is some subtle fallacy in his arguments. A 
distrust that reminds one of the story related by a French 
writer, M. Say, of some one who, for a wager, stood a whole 
day on one of the bridges in Paris, offering to sell a five-franc 
piece for one franc, and (naturally) not finding a purchaser. 
In this way, the very clearness and force of the demonstra- 
tion will, with some minds, have an opposite tendency to the 
one desired. Labourers who are employed in driving wedges 
into a block of wood, are careful to use blows of no greater 
force than is just sufiicient. If they strike too hard, the 
elasticity of the wood will throw out the wedge. 

The difficulty of refuting very silly and weak arguments, 
reminds one of the well-known difficult feat of cutting 
through a cushion with a sword. 

Eloquence is relative. One can no more pronounce on the 
eloquence of any composition than the wholesomeness of a 
medicine, without knowing for whom it is intended. 

It is usual to call an argument, simply, strong or weak, 
without reference to the purpose for which it is designed; 
whereas, the arguments which afford the most satisfaction to 
a candid mind, are often such as would have less weight in 
controversy than many others, which, again, would be the 
less suitable for the former purpose, — for instance, there are 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPPITHEGMS. 201 

some of the internal evidences of Christianity, -which, in 
general, are the most satisfactory to a believer's mind, but 
are not the most striking in the refutaJ:ion of unbelievers : 
the arguments from Analogy on the other hand, -which are 
(in refuting objections) the most unanstverahle, are not so 
pleasing and consolatory. 

It may serve to illustrate what has been said, to remark 
that our judgment of the character of any individual, is often 
not originally derived from such circumstances as we should 
assign, or could adequately set forth in language, in justifi- 
cation of our opinion. When we undertake to give our 
reasons for thinking that some individual, with whom we are 
personally acquainted, is, or is not, a gentleman, — a man of 
taste, — humane, — public-spirited, &c., — we of course appeal 
to his conduct, or his distinct avoAval of his own sentiments ; 
and if these furnish sufficient proof of our assertions, we are 
admitted to have given good reasons for our opinion ; but it 
may be still doubted whether these were, in the first instance, 
at least, our reasons which led us to form that opinion. If 
we carefully and candidly examine our own minds, we shall 
generally find that our judgment was originally, (if not 
absolutely decided), at least, strongly influenced by the per- 
son's looks, tones of voice, gestures, choice of expressions, 
and the like ; which, if stated as reasons for forming a con- 
clusion, would in general appear frivolous, merely because 
no language is competent adequately to describe them ; but 
which are not necessarily insufficient grounds for beginning, 
at least, to form an opinion ; since it is notorious that there 
are many acute persons Avho are seldom deceived in such 
indications of character. 

In all subjects, indeed, persons unaccustomed to writing 
or discussion, but possessing natural sagacity, and experi- 
ence in particular departments, have been observed to be 



202 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

generally unable to give a satisfactory reason for their judg- 
ments, even on points on wMcli they are actually very good 
judges. This is a defect which it is the business of education 
to surmount or diminish. After all, however, in some sub- 
jects no language can adequately convey (to the inexperi- 
enced at least) all the indications which influence the judg- 
ment of an acute and practised observer. And hence it h;is 
been justly and happily remarked, that " he must be an 
indifferent physician, who never takes any step for which he 
cannot assign a satisfactory reason." 

To speak perfectly well, a man must feel that he has got 
to the bottom of the subject ; and to feel this on occasions 
when, from the nature of the case, it is impossible he really 
can have done so, is inconsistent with the character of great 
profundity. Therefore, it may fairly be doubted, whether a 
first-rate man can ever be a first-rate orator, if at least he is 
to be accounted such, who (as Cicero lays down) can speak 
the best and most persuasively on any subject whatever that 
may arise. 

That kind of skill by which, in oral examination of wit- 
nesses, a cross-examiner succeeds in alarming, misleading, 
or bewildering an honest witness, may be characterized as 
the most, or one of the most, base and depraved of all pos- 
sible employments of intellectual power. Nor is it by any 
means the best mode of eliciting truth. Generally speaking, 
a quiet, gentle, and straightforward, though full and careful, 
examination, will be the most adapted to elicit truth ; and 
the manoeuvres, and the brow-beating, which are the most 
adapted to confuse an honest, simple-minded, witness, are 
just what the dishonest one is the best prepared for. The 
more the storm blusters, the more carefully he wTaps round 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 203 

him the cloak, which a warm sunshine Avill often induce him 
to throw off. 

It is no uncommon manoeuvre of a dexterous sophist, when 
there is some argument, statement, scheme, &c., which he 
cannot directly defeat, to assent with seeming cordiality, but 
with some exception, addition, or qualification, (as e. g., an 
additional clause in an act), which, though seemingly unim- 
portant, shall entirely nullify all the rest. This has been 
humorously compared to the trick of the pilgrim, in the 
well-known tale, who " took the liberty to boil his peas." 

It is not only the fairest, but also the wisest, plan for an 
advocate to state objections in their full force. It is but a 
momentary and ineffective triumph that can be obtained by 
manoeuvres like those of Turnus's charioteer, who furiously 
chased the feeble stragglers of the army, and evaded the 
main front of the battle. 

Gibbon affords the most remarkable instances of that kind 
of style, in which the assumption of the point in question is 
never stated distinctly, but some other proposition inserted 
which implies it. He keeps it out of sight (as a dexterous 
thief does stolen goods), at the very moment he is taking it 
for granted. His way of writing reminds one of those 
persons who never dare look you full in the face. 

That style which is composed chiefly of the words of 
Prench origin, while it is less intelligible to the lowest classes, 
is cliaracteristic of those who, in cultivation of taste, are 
below the highest. As in dress, furniture, deportment, &c., 
so also in language, the dread of vulgarity, constantly 
besetting those who are half conscious that they are in 



204 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

danger of it, drives them into the opposite extreme of affected 
finerj. 

Words derived from the Saxon are better understood by 
the lower orders of the English than those derived from the 
Latin (either directly or through the medium of the French), 
even when the latter are more in use among persons of 
education. A remarkable instance of this is, that while the 
children of the higher classes always call their parents 
"Papa!" and "Mamma!" the children of the peasantry 
usually call them by the titles of " Father !" and " Mother !" 
For those who wish to be understood by them, there is a 
remarkable scope for such a choice, from the multitude of 
synonymes derived respectively from the two elements of which 
our language is composed. The compilers of our Liturgy, 
being anxious to reach the understanding of all classes, at a 
time when our language was in a less settled state than at 
present, availed themselves of this circumstance, in employ- 
ing many synonymous or nearly synonymous expressions, 
most of which are of the description just alluded to. Take, as 
an instance, the Exhortation : " acknowledge" and " confess," 
— "dissemble" and "cloak," — "humble," and "lowly," — 
"goodness" and "mercy," — "assemble" and "meet 
together. 

Young writers of genius ought especially to be admonished 
to ask themselves frequently, not whether this or that is a 
striking expression, but whether it makes the meani7ig more 
striking than another phrase would. 

Unpractised composers are apt to fancy that they shall 
have the greater abundance of matter, the wider extent of 
subject they comprehend ; but experience shows that the 
reverse is the fact: the more general and extensive view vail 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 205 

often suggest nothing to the mind but vague and trite 
remarks ; when, upon narrowing the field of discussion, many 
interesting questions of detail present themselves. The 
ajDpljing a microscope to a small space, will give to view 
much that a wider survey would not have exhibited. 

Many writers have diminished the effect of their works by 
being scrupulous to admit nothing into them which had not 
some absolute, intrinsic, and independent merit. They have 
acted like those who strip off the leaves of a fruit-tree, as 
being of themselves good for nothing, with the view of 
securing; more nourishment to the fruit, which in fact cannot 
attain its full maturity and flavour without them. Let any 
one cut out from the Iliad, or from Shakspeare's plays, every- 
thing to which the only objection is, its being devoid of im- 
portance or of interest in itself ; and he will find that what 
is left will have lost more than half its charms. 

To attempt to make everything emphatic is to make 
nothing emphatic. 

To brighten the dark parts of a picture produces much the 
same result as if one had darkened the bright parts ; in 
either case there is a want of reAief and contrast ; SLudi Com- 
position, as well as Painting, has its lights and shades, 
which must be distributed with no less skill, if we would 
produce the desired effect. 

The appearance of a too uniform elegance or stateliness 
of style, is apt to clog ; like a piece of music without any 
discord. 

The word ' frigid' has been properly applied to that style, 
in which ornaments that might seem to border on the poetical, 
18 



206 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

are adopted in prose, because we are, in poetical prose, 
reminded of, and for that reason, disposed to 7niss, the 
" warmth" and " glow" of poetry. It is on the same princi- 
ple, that we are disposed to speak of coldness in the rays of 
the moon, because they remind us of sunshine but want its 
warmth ; and that (to use an humble and more familiar in- 
stance) an empty fire-place is apt to suggest an idea of cold. 

Johnson's style, unfortunately, is particularly easy of 
imitation, even by Avriters utterly destitute of his vigour of 
thought ; and such imitators are intolerable. They bear the 
same resemblance to their model, that the armour of the 
Chinese, as described by travellers, consisting of thick quilted 
cotton covered with stiff glazed paper, does to that of the 
ancient knights ; equally glittei'ing and bulky, but destitute 
of the temper and firmness which was its sole advantage. 

Some writers abound Avith a kind of mock-antithesis, in 
which the same, or nearly the same, sentiment which is ex- 
pressed by the first clause, is repeated in a second; or at 
least, in which there is but little of real contrast between the 
clauses Avhich are expressed in a contrasted form ; and which 
have been compared to the false handles and keyholes with 
which furniture is decorated, that serve no other purpose than 
to correspond to the real ones. Much of Dr. Johnson's 
writings is chargeable with this fault. 

Energetic brevity is best attained by what may be called 
a suggestive style ; such, that is, as without making a distinct, 
though brief, mention of a multitude of particulars, shall 
put the hearer's mind into the same train of thought as the 
speaker's, and suggest to him more than is actually expressed. 
Such a style may be compared to a good map, which marks 
distinctly the great outlines, setting down the principal rivers, 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 207 

towns, mountains, &c., leaving the imagination to supply the 
villages, hillocks, and streamlets ; which, if they were all 
inserted in theii' due proportions, would crovv'd the map, 
though, after all, they could not be discerned without a 
microscope. 

As a side view of a faint star, or, especially, of a comet, 
presents it in much greater brilliancy than a direct view ; so 
by an oblique description, by the introducing circumstances 
connected with, and affected by, the main object, but not 
absolutely forming part of it, a more striking impression 
shall be produced of anything that is in itself great and 
remarkable, than could be produced by a minute and direct 
description. Thus, the woman's application to the king of 
Samaria, to compel her neighbour to fulfil the agreement of 
sharing with her the infant's flesh, gives a more frightful im- 
pression of the horrors of the famine than any more direct 
description could have done; since it presents to us the 
picture of that hardening of the heart to every kind of horror, 
and that destruction of the ordinary state of human senti- 
ment, which is the result of long continued and extreme 
misery. Nor could any detail of the particular vexations to 
be suffered by the exiled Jews for their disobedience, convey 
so lively an idea of them as that description of their result 
contained in the denunciation of Moses : "In the evening 
thou shalt say, Would God it were morning ! and in the 
morning thou shalt say. Would God it were evening !" 

In the poem of liokeby, a striking exemplification occurs 
of what has been said : Bertram, in describing the proAvess 
he had displayed as a Buccaneer, does not particularise any 
of his exploits, but alludes to the terrible impression they 
had left ; 



208 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

"Panama's maids shall long look pale, 
When Risingham inspires the tale ; 
Chili's dai-k mati'ons long shall tamo 
The froward child with Bertram's name." 

The first of dramatists, who might have been perhaps the 
first of orators, has offered some excellent exemplifications 
of this rule; especially in the speech of Antony over Csesar's 
body. 

It is a fault, carefully to be avoided, to express feeling 
more vehemently than that the audience can go along with 
the speaker ; who would, in that case, as Cicero observes, 
seem like one raving among the sane, or intoxicated in the 
midst of the sober. And accordingly, except where from 
extraneous causes, the audience are already in an excited 
state, we must carry them forward gradually, and allow time 
for the fire to kindle. The blast which would brighten a 
strong flame would, if applied too soon, extinguish the first 
faint spark. 

Almost every one is aware of the infectious nature of any 
emotion excited in a large assembly. The power of this 
reflex sympathy in increasing any feeling — whether pity, 
indignation, contempt, bashfulness, the sense of the ludi- 
crous, &c. — may be compared to the increase of sound by a 
number of echoes ; or of light, by a number of mirrors ; or 
to the blaze of a heap of firebrands, each of which would 
speedily have gone out if kindled separately, but which when 
thrown together, help to kindle each other. 

Action, in public speaking, should always precede some- 
what the utterance of the words. That is always the natural 
order of action. An emotion, struggling for utterance, pro- 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 209 

duces a tendency to a bodily gesture, to express that emotion 
more quickly than words can be framed ; the words follow 
as soon as they can be spoken. And this being always the 
case with a real, earnest, unstudied speaker, this mode of 
placing the action foremost, gives (if it be otherwise 
appropriate), the appearance of earnest emotion actually 
present in the mind. And yet, boys are generally taught 
to employ the prescribed action either after, or during, the 
utterance of the words it is to enforce. This circumstance 
alone would be sufficient to convert the action of Demos- 
thenes himself into a feeble affectation, into unsuccessful 
and ridiculous pantomime. 

He is usually regarded as a powerful speaker, who is pro- 
claimed as such by all his hearers, in consequence of their 
having all admitted, or being ready to admit, his conclusion, 
and thence, affording, at least, no proof of his power. 

It is worth observing that Arguments from Example, 
whether real or invented, are the most easily comprehended 
by the young and the uneducated ; because they facilitate 
the power of abstraction — a power which, in such hearers, is 
usually the most imperfect. This mode of reasoning corres- 
ponds to a geometrical demonstration by means of a diagram ; 
in which the figure placed before the learner, is an individual, 
employed, as he soon comes to perceive, as a sign, though 
not an arbitrary sign, representing the whole class. The 
words, written or spoken, of any language are arbitrary: 
the characters of picture-writing, or hieroglyphics, are natural 
signs. The algebraic signs, again, are arbitrary ; each 
character not being itself an individual of the class it repre- 
sents. These last therefore correspond to the abstract terms 
of a language. 
18* 



210 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

The pleasure derived from taking in the author's meaning, 
when an ingenious comparison is employed, (referred by 
Aristotle to the pleasure of the act of learning), is so great, 
that the reader or hearer is apt to mistake his apprehension 
of this for a perception of a just and convincing analogy. 
The aptness and beauty of an illustration sometimes leads 
men to overrate, and sometimes to underrate, its force as an 
argument. 

Our Lord's parables are mostly explanatory — introduced 
for Illustration, not for Argument. His discourses, gene- 
rall}'' speaking, are but little argumentative. " He taught as 
one having authority ;" stating and explaining his doctrines, 
and referring for proof to his actions." " The works that I 
do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me." 

The non-existence of a case brought forward as an illus- 
tration of our meaning, no more ajffects the soundness of our 
argument than the mistake of a physician, as to the disorder 
of a patient, affects the fact that such a disorder exists. 

I can well sympathize with the contempt mingled with 
indignation expressed by Cicero against certain philosophers, 
who found fault with Plato for having, in a case he proposes, 
alluded to the fabulous ring of Gyges, which had the virtue 
of making the wearer invisible. They had found out, it 
seems, that there never was any such ring. 

The Arrangement of Arguments is not perhaps of less 
consequence in Composition than in the Military Art ; in 
which it is well known, that with an equality of forces, in 
numbers, courage, and every other point, the manner in 
which they are drawn up, so as either to afford mutual sup- 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS.- 211 

port, or on tlie other hand, even to impede and annoy each 
other, may make the difference of victory or defeat. 

E. Gf. In the statement of the Evidences of our Religion, 
so as to give them their just weight, much depends on the 
Order in which they are placed. The Antecedent probahility 
that a Revelation should be given to Man, and that it should 
be established by miracles, all would allow to be, considered 
by itself, in the absence of strong, direct testimony, utterly 
insufficient to establish the conclusion. On the other hand, 
miracles considered abstractedly, as represented to have 
occurred, without any occasion or reason for them being 
assigned, carry with them such a strong, intrinsic improba- 
bility as could not be wholly surmounted even by such 
evidence as would fully establish any other matters of fact. 
But the evidences of the former class, however inefficient 
alone towards the establishment of the conclusion, have very 
great weight in preparing the mind for receiving the other 
arguments ; which again, though they would be listened to 
with prejudice if not so supported, will then be allowed their 
just weight. The writers in defence of Christianity have 
not always attended to this principle ; and their opponents 
have often availed themselves of the knowledge of it, by 
combating in detail, arguments, the combined force of which 
would have been irresistible. If any one out of a hundred 
men throw a stone which strikes a certain object, there is 
but a slight probability, from that fact alone, that he aimed 
at that object ; but if all the hundred threw stones which 
struck the same object, no one would doubt that they aimed 
at it. It is from such a combination of argument that we 
infer the existence of an intelligent Creator, from the marks 
of contrivance visible in the universe, though many of these 
are such as, taken singly, might well be conceived undesigned 
and accidental ; but that they should all be such is morally 



212 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

impossible. Yet opponents argue respecting the credibility 
of the Christian miracles abstractedly, as if they were insu- 
lated occurrences, -without any known or conceivable pur- 
pose ; as e.g., what testimony is sufficient to establish the 
belief that a dead man was restored to life ?" And then 
they proceed to show that the probability of a Revelation, 
abstractedly considered, is not such at least as to establish the 
fact that one has been given. Whereas, if it yf ex o first proved 
(as may easily be done) merely that there is no such abstract 
improbability of a Revelation as to exclude the evidence in 
favour of it, and that if one were given, it must be expected 
to be supported by miraculous evidence, then, just enough 
reason would be assigned for the occurrence of miracles, not 
indeed to establish them, but to allow a fair hearing for the 
arguments by which they are proved. 

A great advantage in the arrangement of arguments, is 
possessed by the speaker over the writer. The speaker com- 
pels his hearers to consider the several points brought before 
them, in the order which he thinks best. Readers, on the 
contrary, Avill sometimes, by dipping into a book, or examin- 
ing the table of contents, light on something so revolting to 
some prejudice, that though they might have admitted the 
proofs of it, if they had read it in the order designed, they 
may at once close the book in disgust. 

The arrangement of Words is of no little importance to 
style. It is like the proper distribution of the lights in a 
picture ; which is hardly of less consequence than the correct 
and lively representation of the objects. 

It is no uncommon trick with some writers, by the inven- 
tion' and adoption of complete new sets of technical terms, 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 213 

to pass off long-known truths for prodigious discoveries, and 
gain the credit of universal originality by the boldness of 
their innovations in language ; like some voyagers of dis- 
covery, who take possession of countries, whether before 
visited or not, by formally giving them new names. 

By a multiplicity of words, the sentiment, like David in 
Saul's armour, is incumbered and oppressed. 

The completeness of a library does not consist in the 
number of volumes, especially if many of them are dupli- 
cates, but in its containing copies of each of the most 
valuable works. Nor was Lucullus's wardrobe, which, ac- 
cording to Horace, boasted five thousand mantles, necessarily 
well-stocked, if other articles of dress were wanting. And 
in like manner, true copiousness of language consists, not in 
a multitude of synonyms and circumlocutions, but in having 
at command, as far as possible, a suitable expression for 
each different modification of thought. The greater our 
command of language, the more concisely we shall be enabled 
to write. 

Many a speaker is lauded as "having a fine command of 
language," of whom it might better be said, that "his lan- 
s;uaa;e has a command of him." He has the same " com- 
mand of language" that a rider has of a horse that is running 
away with him. 

The censure of frequent and long parentheses, has led 
"writers into the preposterous expedient of leaving out the 
marks by which they are indicated. It is no cure to a lame 
man to take away his crutches. 



214 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

Fine -writing ought not to be looked for in the treatment 
of scientific subjects. There is a neatness, indeed, and a 
sort of beauty resulting from the appearance of healthful 
vigour in a well-tilled corn-field ; but one which is overspread 
with blue and red flowers, gives no great promise of a crop. 

Pope's rhymes too often supply the defect of his reasons. 

What is said of human approbation as compared with in- 
trinsic rectitude — that it is a very good thing when it hap- 
pens to come incidentally, but must never be made an object 
— may be said of forcible or elegant expressions as compared 
with Truth. The desire of Truth must reign supreme, and 
everything else be welcomed only if coming in her train. 

When the moon shines brightly, we are apt to say, " How 
beautiful is this ^noon-light l'' — but in the daytime, "How 
beautiful are the trees, the fields, the mountains !" — and, in 
short, all objects that are illuminated : we never speak of the 
sun that makes them so. Just so, the really greatest orator 
shines like the sun, making you think much of the tilings he 
is speaking of; the second-best shines like the moon, making 
you think much of him and his eloquence. 

Without undertaking to maintain, like Quintilian, that no 
one can be an orator who is not a virtuous man, yet, as the 
orator is bound as such, on rhetorical principles, to be ex- 
clusively intent on carrying his point, there certainly is a 
kind of moral excellence implied in that renunciation of all 
efibrt to gain approbation, or even avoid censure, except with 
a view to that point, — in that forgetfulness of self, which is 
absolutely necessary, both in the manner of writing, and in 
the delivery, to give the full force to what is said. The 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 215 

orator should adopt as liis motto the reply of Themistocles, 
— " Strike, but hear me." 

Men of uncultivated minds generally admire the profundity 
of what is mystical and obscure — mistaking the muddiness 
of the water for depth, and magnifying in their imagination 
Avhat is seen through a fog. But this tendency becomes a 
grave evil, when this cloudy style is made use of, as it now 
is, by modern infidels, to conceal from the unwary the fact 
of their being decidedly anti-christian. The dark sayings 
of such writers may be compared to a fog-bank at sea, which 
the mariner, at first glance, takes for a chain of majestic 
mountains, but which, when he turns his glass upon it, proves 
nothing more than a heap of noxious vapours. 

The taste of many, in the present day, sets very strongly 
in favour of a sort of mystical sublimity, — of a style full of 
high-sounding words, sometimes hardly English, — which 
dimly expresses, or obscurely hints at, doctrines supposed to 
be above the reach of ordinary mortals, and such as ordinary 
language could not express at all. And such a style is 
admired, not only as very eloquent, — not only as displaying 
originality of genius, — but as highly '■'' ■pJiilosoiohical,' ' diXidi as 
placing the writer far above any one who condescends to be 
"practical," that is, who writes so that his hearers may un- 
derstand distinctly what he says, and learn something from 
it, and become the wiser or the better for it. 

" A fico foi' the world," (says Ancient Pistol) 
"and wordlings base! 
I speak of Africa and golden joys." 

Thus the gorgeous visions which floated before the imagina- 
tion of the alchemists, of the philosophers' stone and the 



216 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

universal medicine, made them regard, with impatient scorn, 
the humble labours of metallurgy and pharmacy. 

And it is not, as might at first sight be supposed, that men 
are, in each case, led by their favourite writers to mistake 
falsehood for truth. The fault lies deeper. Truth — which 
used to be regarded as the first point, in all Philosophy, — is, 
according to this new school, a matter of secondai'y considera- 
tion. The ingenious, the splendid, the original, the "poetic 
and ideal" — everything that may enable a man to be the 
"founder of a school," by dazzling a host of idolizing 
followers, and converting (to use Bacon's language), his own 
"Idola Species" into " Idola Theatri" — all this is regarded 
as more philosojjhical than the attainment of Truth ; and 
high encomiums are actually lavished on " the freshness of 
spirit, and breadth of view" of a writer's religious specula- 
tions, ^y^7i when erroneous ? 

Now if, even in what relates to revealed religion, to that 
which comes from the Most High, and which concerns man's 
eternal w^elfare, — if in these matters, Truth is regarded as 
of less account than "glorious imaginations" and "eloquent 
sublimity," — we may well expect that, in all other subjects, 
the striking and showy will be more thought of, than the 
right and true ; and that Poetry and Oratory will not merely 
be preferred to Philosophy, but will usurp her place and 
assume her name. 

It may always be anticipated that Truth when it is once 
understood, and when it is allowed on which side it lies, will 
before long prevail. Error, on any point, may indeed bear 
rule for any length of time, while undetected ; but when its 
real character is inWj exposed, the days of its reign are num- 
bered. Not that its practical overthrow is evesi then imme- 
diate. Sound principles must not only be brought into 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 217 

notice, and clearly explained, but must be allowed some time 
to become familiar to men's minds, before they will be acted 
on. The words which Shakspeare puts into the mouth of 
Dogberry, probably in mere sport, may be taken as a correct 
description of what actually takes jolace in many departments 
of life. " It hath been proved already that you are stark 
knaves; and it will go near to bo thought so shortly." 

It often happens that, before a popular audience, a greater 
degree of skill is requisite for maintaining the cause of truth 
than of falsehood, from the difficulty of exhibiting, in their 
full strength, the delicate distinctions on which truth some- 
times depends. 

Many are misled by their admiration of what is called a 
poiverful discourse, forgetting that that is the most powerful 
which best effects the object proposed. The power of a 
sample of gunpowder, or of a piece of ordnance, is tested, 
not by the loudness of the report, but by the depth of the 
impression made on the target. 

Many a meandering discourse one hears, in which the 
preacher aims at nothing, and — hits it. 

"Words," says Ilobbes, "are the counters of wise men, 
and the money of fools." Hence, the latter can never dis- 
tinguish a verbal, from a real, question. 

The true meaning of a word, is that which it expresses ; 
and the right name of a thing, is that which it is called by. 

One of the most common sources of dissension, is the 
mistaking the meaning of others ; and hence, the word mis- 
understanding is applied to disagreements in general. 
19 



218 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTKEGMS. 

All men, except idiots, reason in some sort or another, 
consciously or unconsciously — many being in the condition 
of Moliere's Bourgeois (xentilliomme, who had been talking 
prose all his life, without knowing it. Now what most men 
will do, whether well or ill, it must be of the utmost import- 
ance they should be qualified for doing well. 

As it is an advantage in algebraical calculations, to employ 
a letter of the alphabet, as a symbol to denote some unknown 
quantity, while remembering, that this does not make it be- 
come at once a hnown quantity ; so it is a convenience, to 
affix names to our own indistinct and imperfect notions, pro- 
vided, when grown familiar with these names, Ave do not for- 
get how little we know of the things themselves. 

Long and habitual attention to the different meanings of 
the same word, and assiduous vigilance in the use of it, are 
necessary to prevent our sliding insensibly from one meaning 
into another, and fancying that we are still speaking of the 
same thing, because we are employing the same sound. 

It is to be observed, that the words whose ambiguity is the 
most frequently overlooked, and is productive of the greatest 
amount of confusion of thought and fallacj', are among the 
commonest, and are those of whose meaning the generality 
consider there is the least room to doubt. Familiar ac- 
quaintance is perpetually mistaken for accurate knowledge. 

There is no mistake more common than the mistake of the 
unquestioned for the unquestionable. 

The ambiguity in all languages of almost all the words re- 
lating to the Physical Cause and the Logical Proof of any- 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 219 

tiling, has produced incalculable confusion of thought, and 
from which it is the harder to escape, on account of its ex- 
tending to those very forms of expression, which are intro- 
duced to clear it up. 

*' Chaos umpire sits, 

And by deciding, worse embroils the fray." 

To cease to use words in their transferred sense, from the 
primary to the secondary, would, if it were desirable, be 
utterly impracticable ; but there cannot be too great atten- 
tion to the ambiguity thus introduced, nor too constant 
watchfulness against the errors thence arising. ' It is with 
words as with money.' Those who know the value of it best 
are not therefore the least liberal. We may lend readily 
and largely; and though this be done quietly and without os- 
tentation, there is no harm in keej)ing an exact account in 
our private memorandum-book, of the sums, the persons, and 
the occasions on which they were lent. It may be, we shall 
want them again for our own use ; or they may be employed 
by the borroAver for a wrong purpose ; or they may have been 
so long in his possession, that he begins to look upon them as 
his own. In either of which cases, it is allowable, and even 
right, to call them in. 

All use is not the standard for a word, but good use. 
Those who have a right of suffrage in this matter are, first, 
educated people ; — secondly, those who are careful in their 
use of language, — yet, thirdly, free from affectation ; — 
fourthly, having no particular theory (like Home Tooke's) 
on the subject of language, — nor, fifthly, on the subject to 
which the terms in question belong ; — sixthly, the appeal 
must be made to their intentional and established practice, 
not to their occasional and incidental deviations from it. 



220 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

Arguments from analogy, convenience, etymology, &c., are, 
in this matter, to be then only listened to, "when use is doubt- 
ful or indifferent : they are like the counsellors of a despot? 
■whose office is to sway his deliberations when he is in doubt, 
but not to oppose his decisions. 

Nothing, perhaps, has contributed more to the error of 
Realism than inattention to the ambiguity of the word 
"Same," which is employed to denote great similarity; a 
sense very different from its primary one, as applicable to a 
single object. When several persons are said to have One 
and the Same opinion — thought — or idea, — many men, over- 
looking the true simple statement of the case, which is, that 
they are all thinking alike, look for something more abstruse 
and mystical, and imagine there must be some one thing, in 
the primary sense, though not an individual, which is present 
at once in the mind of each of these persons : and thence 
readily sprung Plato's theory of ideas ; each of which was, 
according to him, one real, eternal, object, existing entire 
and complete in each of the individual objects that are 
known by one name. Hence, first in poetical mythology, 
and ultimately, perhaps, in popular belief. Fortune, Liberty, 
Prudence (Minerva), a boundary (Terminus), and even the 
Mildew of corn (Rubigo), &c., became personified, deified, 
and represented by statues ; somewhat according to the pro- 
cess which is described by Swift, in his humorous manner, in 
speaking of Zeal (in the Tale of a Tub), " how from a notion 
it became a word, and from thence, in a hot summer, 
ripened into a tangible substance." An old story is told of 
a learned gentleman, who, despising female intellect, lent to 
a lady, as a joke, Locke's Essay. When she returned it, he 
asked -her what she thought of it : she replied that there 
seemed to her very many good things in it, but there was 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 221 

one word she did not clear! j understand — the word idea (as i- 
she pronounced it, which, by the way, is just as we do pro-^,;.. .. , 
nounce it in the original Greek) ; he told her it was the w, 
feminine of "idiot." Now it is more than doubtful whether 
the learned gentleman, or Locke himself, understood in what 
sense he used the word, any more than the lady ; only, that 
she had the sagacity to perceive that she did not. 

Whatever personal identity does consist in, it is plain that 
it has no necessary connexion with similarity ; since, when 
we say of any man that he is greatly altered since such a 
time, we understand, and indeed imply, by the very expres- 
sion, that he is one person, though different in several 
qualities ; else it would not be he. Every one would be 
ready to say, " When I was a child, I thought as a child, I 
spake as a child, I understood as a child ; but when I became 
a man, I put away childish things." 

The ambiguity of the word "plain" has, probably, pro- 
duced many indifferent sermons. A young divine perceives 
the truth of the maxim, that "for the lower orders one's 
language cannot be too plain" (that is, clear and 'perspicu- 
ous, so as to require no learning nor ingenuity to understand 
it): and when he proceeds to practice, the word "plain" 
indistinctly flits before him, as it were, and often checks him 
in the use of ornaments of style, such as metaphor, epithet, 
and antithesis, &c., which are opposed to 'plainness' in a 
totally different sense of the word; being by no means 
necessarily adverse to perspicuity, but rather, in many cases, 
conducive to it ; as may be seen in several of the clearest of 
our Lord's discourses, which are the very ones that are 
the most richly adorned with figurative language. This 
ambiguity often causes men to write in a dry and bald style, 
19* 



222 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

"whicli has no advantage in point of perspicuity, and is least 
of all suited to the taste of the vulgar, -who are pleased with 
an ornamental style, even in excess. 

The word ' Contingent,' though applied to events only, not 
to persons, yet denotes no quality in the events themselves, 
only the relation in which they stand to a person, who has 
no complete knowledge concerning them. For the same 
thing may be, at the same time, both certain and uncertain 
to different individuals ; e. g., the life or death at a particular 
time of any one is certain to his friends on the spot ; uncer- 
tain or contingent to those at a distance. It is from over- 
looking this principle, obvious as it is when once distinctly 
stated, that Chance or Fortune has come to be regarded as a 
real agent, and to have been by the ancients personified as a 
goddess and represented by statues. 

An undetected ambiguity in the word ' tendency' has led 
to the doctrine, as mischievous as it is, I conceive, unfounded, 
that since there is a tendency in population to increase faster 
than the means of subsistence, hence, the pressure of popu- 
lation against subsistence may be expected to become greater 
and greater in each sucessive generation, (unless new and 
extraordinary remedies are resorted to,) and thus to produce 
a progressive diminution of human welfare ; — whereas, it is 
well known, that all civilized countries have a greater pro- 
portionate amount of wealth, now, than formerly. By a 
"tendency" towards a certain result is sometimes meant 
"the existence of a cause which, if operating unimpeded, 
would produce that result." In this sense, it may be said 
Avith truth that the earth, or any other body moving round a 
centre, 'has a tejidency to fly off at a tangent, i. e., the cen- 
trifugal force operates in that direction, though it is controlled 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 223 

by the centi-ipetal. But sometimes again " a tendency 
towards a certain result" is understood to mean the existence 
of such a state of things that that result may he expected to 
take place.'' Now it is in these two senses that the word is 
used in the two premises of the argument in question. 
But in this latter sense the earth has a greater tendency to 
remain in its orbit than to fly off from it ; and (as may be 
proved by comparing a more barbarous with a more civilized 
period in the history of any country) in the progress of 
society, subsistence has a tendency to increase at a greater 
rate than population. In Great Britain, for instance, much 
as the population has increased Avithin the last five centuries, 
it yet bears a less ratio to subsistence (though still a much 
greater than could be wished) than it did five hundred years 
ago. 

It is a common logical error, to suppose that what usually 
belongs to the thing is implied by the usual sense of the 
I'jord. Although most noblemen possess large estates, the 
word ' nobleman' does not imply the possession of a large 
estate. Although most birds can fly, the ordinary use of 
the term ' bird' does not imply this ; since the penguin and 
the ostrich are always admitted to be birds. And though, in 
a great majority of cases, it so happens, by the apjjointment 
of Providence, that w-ealth is acquired by labour, the ordinary 
use of the word ' wealth' does not include this circumstance ; 
since every one would call a pearl an article of wealth, even 
though a man should chance to meet with it in eating an 
oyster. It is not that pearls fetch a high price because men 
have dived for them ; but, on the contrary, men dive for 
them because they fetch a high price. 

There are two difiereut applications of the word 'Experi- 



224 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

ence,' -which, when not carefully distinguished, lead in prac- 
tice to the same confusion as the employment of it in two 
senses : viz., we sometimes understand our own personal 
Experience, sometimes General Experience. Hume has 
availed himself of this (practical) ambiguity, in his Essay on 
Miracles ; in which he observes, that we have Experience of 
the frequent falsity of testimony; but that the occurrence 
of a Miracle is contrary to our Experience, and is conse- 
quently what no testimony ought to be allowed to establish. 
Now had he explained whose Experience he meant, the argu- 
ment would have come to nothing : if he means the Experi- 
ence of mankind universally, that is, that a Miracle has never 
come under the experience of any one; this is palpably 
begging the question : if he means the experience of each 
individual who has never himself witnessed a miracle, this 
would establish a rule (viz., that we are to believe nothing of 
which we have not ourselves experienced the like), which it 
would argue insanity to act upon. Not only was the king 
of Bantam justified, (as Hume himself admits) in listening 
to no evidence for the existence of Ice, but no one would be 
authorized, on this principle, to expect his own death : his 
experience informs him, directly, only that others have died, 
while every disease under which he himself may have laboured 
his experience tells him has not terminated fatally ; if he is 
to judge strictly of the future by the past, according to this 
rule, what should hinder him from expecting the like of all 
future diseases ? 

Much sophistry has been founded on the neglect of the 
distinction between three senses of the word "Impossibility," 
— or three kinds of Impossibilities, the mathematical, the 
physical, and the moral. A mathematical impossibility is 
that which involves an absurdity and a self-contradiction; 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 225 

wliicli may be called a mathematical impossibility, being 
irreconcilable with propositions, the truth of which is neces- 
sary and eternal ; since it amomits only to a conformity to 
the hypothesis we set out with. Every such Impossibility 
must be implied — though we may not perceive it — in the 
terms employed, — in short, it must be properly a contradic- 
tion in terms. For instance, that two straight lines should 
enclose a space, is not only impossible but inconceivable, as 
it would be at variance with the definition of a straight line. 
And it should be observed, that inability to accomplish any- 
thing which is in this sense, impossible, implies no limitation 
of 2^ower, and is compatible even with omnipotence, in the 
fullest sense of the word. If it be proposed, to construct a 
triangle having one of its sides equal to the other two, it is 
not from a defect of power that we are precluded from solving 
such a problem as this ; since in fact the problem is in itself 
unmeaning and absurd: it is in reality, nothing that is 
required to be done. 

Secondly — What may be called a Physical Impossibility, 
is something at variance with the existing Laws of Nature, 
and Avhich consequently no Being subject to those Laws (as 
we are) can surmount ; but we can easily conceive a Being 
capable of bringing about what in the ordinary course of 
Nature is impossible. For instance, — To multiply five loaves 
into food for a multitude, or to walk on the surface of the 
waves, are things physically impossible, but imply no contra- 
diction ; on the contrary, we cannot but suppose that the 
Being, if there be such an one, who created the Universe, =s 
able to alter at will the properties of any of the substances 
it contains. And an occurrence of this character Ave call 
miraculous. Not but that one person may perform without 
supernatural power what is to another physically impossible ; 
as, for instance, a man may lift a great weight, which it 



226 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

would be physically impossible for a cMld to raise ; because 
it is contrary to tlie Laws of Nature that a muscle of tliis 
degree of strength should overcome a resistance which one 
of that degree is equal to. But if any one perform what is 
beyond his own natural powers, or the natural powers of 
Man universally, he has performed a miracle. Now, as has 
been above observed, much sophistry has been founded on the 
neglect of the distinction between these two senses. It has 
even been contended that no evidence ought to induce a man 
of sense to admit that a miracle has taken place, on the 
ground that it is a thing impossible to man ; in other words, 
that it is a miracle ; for if it were not a thing impossible to 
man, there would be no miracle in the case ; so that such an 
argument is palpably begging the question ; but it has often 
probably been admitted from an indistinct notion being sug- 
gested of Impossibility in the first sense ; in which sense 
(viz., that of self-contradiction) it is admitted that no 
evidence would justify belief. 

Thirdly — Moral Impossibility signifies only that high 
degree of improbability which leaves no room for doubt. In 
this sense we often call a thing impossible, which implies no 
contradiction, or any violation of the Laws of Nature, but 
which yet we are rationally convinced will never occur 
merely from the multitude of chances against it ; as, for 
instance, that unloaded dice should turn up the same faces 
one hundred times successively. The performance of any- 
thing that is morally impossible to a mere man,, is to be 
reckoned a miracle, as much as if the impossibility were 
physical. It is morally impossible for poor Jewish fishermen 
to have framed such a system of ethical and religious doctrine 
as the Gospel exhibits. It is morally impossible for a man 
to foretell distant and improbable future events with the 
exactitude of many of the prophecies in Scripture. 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 227 

Hume disputes against miracles as contrary to the course 
of Nature, whereas, according to him, there is no such thing 
as a course of Nature. His scepticism extends to the whole 
external world, — to everything except the ideas or impres- 
sions on the mind of the individual : so that a miracle which 
is believed, has, in that circumstance alone, on his principles, 
as much reality as anything can have. 

It is not denial, but doubt, that is opposed to credulity. 
To disbelieve is to believe. And there may be cases in which 
doubt itself may amount to the most extravagant incredulity. 
For instance, if any one should " doubt whether there is any 
such country as Egypt," he would be, in fact, believing this 
most incredible proposition, — that "it is possible for many 
thousands of persons unconnected with each other to have 
agreed, for successive ages, in bearing witness to the existence 
of a fictitious country, without being detected, contradicted, 
or suspected." 

All this, though self-evident, is, in practice, frequently 
lost sight of: the more, on account of our employing, in 
reference to the Christian religion, the words " Believer and 
Unbeliever;" whence unthinking persons are led to take for 
granted that the rejection of Christianity implies a less easy 
belief than its reception. 

A ' Presumption ' in favour of any supposition, according 
to the most correct use of the term, means not, (as has been 
sometimes erroneously imagined) a preponderance of proba- 
bility in its favour, but, such a pre-occupation of the ground 
as implies that it must stand good till some sufficient reason 
is adduced against it ; in short, that the Burden of Proof lies 
on the side of him who would dispute it. The importance 



228 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

of deciding on wliich side lies the onus proiandi is very 
great : on the determination of this question the whole 
character of a discussion will often very much depend. A 
body of troops may be perfectly adequate to the defence of 
a fortress against any attack that may be made on it ; and 
yet, if, ignorant of the advantage they possess, they sally 
forth into the open field, they may suffer a repulse. At any 
rate, even if strong enough to act on the offensive, they 
ought still to keep possession of their fortress. In like 
manner, if you abandon your position, by suffering the 
Presumption on your side to be forgotten, which is in fact 
leaving out one of, perhaps, your strongest arguments, you 
may appear to be making a feeble attack, instead of a trium- 
phant defence. , 

There is a Presumption in favour of every existing insti- 
tution. No one is called on (though he may find it advisable) 
to defend an existing institution, till some argument is 
adduced against it : and that argument ought in fairness to 
prove, not merely an actual inconvenience, but the possibility 
of a change for the better. 

Every book, again, as well as person, ought to be presumed 
harmless (and consequently the copy-right protected by our 
courts), till something is proved against it. 

There is a " Presumption " against QjUjihing pai^adoxicaly 
that is, contrary to the prevailing opinion : it may be true, 
but the Burden of Proof lies with him who maintains it ; 
since men are not expected to abandon the pervading belief 
till some reason is shown. Hence it is, probably, that one 
often hears a charge of " paradox and nonsense " brought 
forward, as if there were some close connexion between the 
two.' And, indeed, in our sense this is the case ; for, to 
those who are too dull, or too prejudiced, to admit any notion 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 229 

at variance with those they have been used to entertain, that 
may appear nonsense, which, to others, is sound sense. 
Thus, " Clirist crucified" was "to the Jews a stumbling- 
block " (paradox), " and to the Greeks, foolishness ;" because 
the one " required a sign " of a different kind from any that 
appeared: and the others "sought after wisdom" in their 
schools of philosophy. 

Accordingly, there was a presumption against the Gospel 
in its first announcement. The burden of proof lay with the 
Jewish peasant, who claimed to be the promised Deliverer, 
in whom all the nations of the Earth were to be blessed. No 
one could be fairly called on to admit his pretensions, till He 
showed cause for believing in Him, If He " had not done 
among them the works which none other man did, they had 
not had sin." 

Now the case is reversed. Christianity exists ; and the 
burden of proof lies plainly with him who rejects it ; which, 
if it were not established by miracles, demands an explana- 
tion of that still greater miracle — its having been established, 
in defiance of all opposition, by human contrivance. It is 
indeed highly expedient, to bring forward more proofs of the 
divine origin of Christianity than may fairly be demanded 
of you; but it is always desirable that it should be known, 
that all this is an argument ex ahundanti — over and above 
what can fairly be called for — and the strength of the cause 
should be estimated accordingly. 

In the case of any doctrines professing to be essential parts 
of the Gospel-revelation, the fair presumption is, that we 
shall find all such distinctly declared in Scripture. If any 
one maintains, on the ground of tradition, the necessity of 
some additional article of faith, (as, for instance, that of 
purgatory), or the propriety of a departure from the New 
20 





230 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

Testament precepts (as, for instance, in the denial of tlie cup 
to the Laity in the Eucharist), the burden of proof lies with 
him. We are not called on to prove that there is no tradi- 
tion to the purpose ; — much less, that no tradition can have 
any weight at all in any case. It is for him to prove, not 
merely generally, that there is such a thing as tradition, and 
that it is entitled to respect, but, that there is a tradition re- 
lative to each of the points which he thus maintains ; and 
that such tradition is, in each point, sufficient to establish 
that point. For want of observing this rule, the most vague 
and interminable disputes have often been carried on respect- 
ing tradition, generally. 

There is (according to the old maxim of '•'■ 'peritis creden- 
dum est ice arte sua") a presumption, (and a fair one,) in re- 
spect of each question, in favour of the judgment of the 
most eminent men in the department it pertains to, — of emi- 
nent physicians, e. g., in respect of medical questions, — of 
theologians, in theological, &c. And by this presumption, 
many of the Jews in our Lord's time seem to have been in- 
fluenced, when they said, " Have any of the rulers or of the 
pharisees believed on Him?" 

But there is a counter-presumption, arising from the cir- 
cumstance that men, eminent in any department, are likely 
to regard with jealousy any one who professes to bring to 
light something unknown to themselves ; especially if it pro- 
mise to supersede, if established, much of what they have 
been accustomed to learn, and teach, and practise. And 
moreover, in respect of the medical profession, there is an 
obvious danger of a man's being regarded as a dangerous ex- 
perimentalist, who adopts any novelty, and of his thus losing 
practice, even among such as may regard him with admira- 
tion as a philosopher. Li confirmation of this, it may be 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 231 

sufficient to advert to the cases of Harvey and Jenner. 
Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood, is said to 
have lost him most of his practice, and to have been rejected 
by every physician in Europe, above the age of forty. And 
Jenner's discovery of vaccination had, in a minor degree, 
similar results. 

- There is also this additional counter-presumption against 
the judgment of the proficients in any department, that they 
are prone to a bias in favour of everything that gives the 
most palpable superiority to themselves over the uninitiated 
(the Idiotse), and affords the greatest scope for the employ- 
ment and display of their own peculiar acquirements. Thus, 
e. g., if there be two possible interpretations of some clause 
in an Act of Parliament, one of which appears obvious to 
every reader of plain, good sense, and the other can be sup- 
ported only by some ingenious and far-fetched legal subtlety, 
a practised lawyer will be liable to a bias in favour of the 
latter, as setting forth the more prominently his own peculiar 
qualifications. And on this principle, in great measure, 
seems founded Bacon's valuable remark ; " Harum artium 
siBpe pravus fit usus, ne sit nullus." Rather than let their 
knowledge and skill lie idle, they will be tempted to misapply 
them ; like a schoolboy, who, when possessed of a knife, is 
for trying its edge on everything that comes in his way. On 
the whole, accordingly, I think that of these two opposite 
presumptions, the counter-presumption has often as much 
weight as the other, and sometimes more. 

*'Men imagine," says Bacon, "that their minds have the 
command of language ; but it often happens that language 
bears rule over their mind." Some of the weak and absurd 
arguments which are often urged against Suicide, may be 
traced to the influence of words on thoughts. When a 



232 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

Christian moralist is called on for a direct Scriiotural precept 
against Suicide, instead of replying that the Bible is not 
meant for a complete code of laivs, but for a system of 
motives and principles, the answer frequently given is, 
" Thou shalt do no Twwrtier," and it is assumed in the argu- 
ments drawn from reason, as well as in those from Revela- 
tion, tbat Suicide is a species of murder ; viz., because it is 
called %Q\i-murder : and thus, deluded by a name, many are 
led to rest on an unsound argument, which, like all other 
fallacies, does more harm than good, in the end, to the cause 
of truth. Suicide, if any one considers the nature and not 
the name of it, evidently wants the most essential charac- 
teristic of murder, viz., the hurt and injury done to one's 
neighbour, in depriving him of life, as well as to others, by 
the insecurity they are in consequence liable to feel. And 
since no one can, strictly speaking, do injustice to himself, 
he cannot, in the literal and primary acceptation of the 
words, be said either to rob or to murder himself. He who 
deserts the post to which he is appointed by his great Master, 
and presumptuously cuts short the state of probation 
graciously allowed him for "working out his salvation" 
(whether by action or by patient endurance), is guilty indeed 
of a grievous sin, but of one not in the least analogous in its 
character to murder. It implies no inhumanity. It is much 
more closely allied to the sin of wasting life in indolence, or 
in trifling pursuits, — that life which is bestowed as a seed 
time for the harvest of immortality. What is called, in 
familiar phrase, "killing time," is, in truth, an approach, as 
far as it goes, to the destruction of one's own life ; for " Time 
is the stuff life is made of." 

The best argument against duels is, that they confer a 
character of daring spirit, Avhich all in some degree admire. 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 233 

on such conduct as would otherwise degrade a man. If one 
gives another the lie, he would be cut as an unmannerly 
brute, but for the rule which allows you to " call him out." 
He is ready to give satisfaction, and is somewhat admired for 
his courage. But for duelling, he could give no satisfaction 
for such an offence to society, which would accordingly send 
him to Coventry. 

The defence, certainly the readiest and most concise, fre- 
quently urged by the sportsman, when accused of barbarity 
in sacrificing unoffending hares or trout to his amusement, is 
to reply, as he may safely do, to most of his assailants, 
" Why do you feed on the flesh of the harmless sheep and 
ox?" and that this answer presses hard, is manifested by its 
being usually opposed by o, palpable falsehood ; viz., that the 
animals which, are killed for food are sacrificed to our necessi- 
ties, though not only men can, but a large proportion 
(probably a great majority) of the human race actually do, 
subsist in health and vigour without flesh-diet ; and the earth 
would support a much greater human population, were such 
a practice universal. When shamed out of this argument, 
they sometimes urge, that the brute creation would overrun 
the earth, if we did not kill them for food ; an argument 
which, if it were valid at all, would not justify their feeding 
on fish ; though, if fairly followed up, it womZc? justify Swift's 
proposal for keeping down the excessive population of Ireland. 
The true reason, viz., that they eat flesh for the gratification 
of the palate, and have a taste for the pleasures of the table, 
though not for the sports of the field, is one which they do 
not like' to assign. 

The word " expect" is liable to an ambiguity which may 
sometimes lead, in conjunction with other causes, to a practi- 
20* 



234 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

cal bad effect. It is sometimes used in the sense of 
"anticipate," "calculate on," &c. (sX'7ri'<^w), in short, 
"consider as probable," sometimes for "require or demand 
as reasonable," — " consider as right" (agiw). Thus, I may 
fairly, " expect" (afioj) that one who has received kindness 
from me, should protect me in distress ; yet I may have 
reason to expect (sXtI^siv) that he will not. " England ex- 
pects every man to do his duty;" but it would be chimerical 
to expect, that is, anticipate, a universal performance of 
duty. Hence, when men of great revenues, whether civil or 
ecclesiastical, live in the splendour and sensuality of Sardana- 
palus, they are apt to plead that this is expected of them ; 
which may be perhaps sometimes true, in the sense that such 
conduct is anticipated as probable ; not true, as implying 
that it is required or approved. What may reasonably be 
expected (in one sense of the word), must be precisely the 
practice of the majority ; since it is the majority of instances 
that co\i?,iitViiQB probability : what may reasonably be expected 
(in the other sense), is something much beyond the practice 
of the generality ; as long, at least, as it shall be true, that 
" narrow is the way that leadeth to life, and few there be 
that find it." 

The expressions "Matter (or question) of Fact" and 
"Matter of Opinion," are not employed by all persons with 
precision and uniformity. Decidedly it is not meant, by 
those, at least, who use language with any precision, that 
there is greater certainty, or more general and ready agree- 
ment, in the one case than in the other. By a " Matter (or 
question) of Opinion," is understood anything respecting 
which an exercise of judgment would be called for on the 
part, of those who should have certain objects before them, 
and who might conceivably disagree in their judgment there- 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 235 

upon ; for instance, that one of Alexander's friends did, or 
did not, administer poison to him, every one would allow to 
be a question of fact, though it may be involved in inextrica- 
ble doubt ; while the question. What sort of an act that was, 
supposing it to have taken place, all would allow to be a 
question of opinion, though probably all would agree in 
their opinion thereupon. 

Again, it is not apparently necessary that a " Matter of 
Fact," in order to constitute it such, should have ever been 
actually submitted — or likely to be so — to the senses of any 
human being ; only, that it should be one which conceivably 
might be so submitted : for instance, whether there is a lake 
in the centre of New Holland, — whether there is land at the 
South Pole — whether the moon is inhabited, — would gene- 
rally be admitted to be questions of fact, although no one 
has been able to bear testimony concerning them ; and, in 
the last case, we are morally certain that no one ever will. 

And in this, and many other cases, different questions, 
very closely connected, are very apt to be confounded 
together, and the proofs belonging to one of them brought 
forward as pertaining to the other : for instance, a case of 
alleged prophecy shall be in question : the event, said to 
have been foretold, shall be established as a fact ; and also 
the utterance of the supposed prediction before the event ; 
and this will perhaps be assumed as proof of that which is in 
reality another question, and a "question of opinion;" 
whether the supposed prophecy related to the event in 
question ; and again, whether it were merely a conjecture of 
human sagacity, or such as to imply superhuman prescience. 

Again, whether a certain passage occurs in certain Manu- 
scripts of the Greek Testament, is evidently a question of 
Fact ; but whether the words imply such and such a doc- 



236 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

trine, — however indubitable it may justly appear to us, — is 
evidently a " Matter of Opinion." 

It is observable also, that, as there may be (as I have just 
said), questions of Opinion relative to Facts, so there may 
also be questions of Fact relative to Opinions ; that is, that 
such and such Opinions were, or were not, maintained at such 
a time and place, by such and such persons, is a question of 
Fact. 

It is no wonder that the longest mathematical demonstra- 
tion should be so much more easily constructed and under- 
stood than a much shorter train of just reasoning concerning 
real facts. For, not only are the mathematical definitions 
very few, but the axioms are still fewer, and always employed 
in the same simple form ; and both are, for the most part, 
laid down and placed before the student in the outset ; while, 
on the other hand, in all reasonings that regard matters of 
fact, fresh and fresh facts are introduced almost at every 
step to a very great number ; and the maxims emj)loyed 
admit of, and require, continual modifications in the applica- 
tion of them. The former has been aptly compared to a long 
and steep, but even and regular, flight of steps, which tries 
the breath, and the strength, and the perseverance only ; 
while the latter resembles a short but rugged and uneven 
ascent up a precipice, which requires a quick eye, agile 
limbs, and a firm step ; and in which we have to tread, now 
on this side, now on that, — ever considering, as we proceed, 
whether this or that projection will afibrd room for our foot, 
or whether some loose stone may not slide from under us. 

The knowledge of facts, whether much or little, will often 
be woi'se than useless to those who are deficient in the power 
of discriminating and selecting ; just as food is to a body, 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 237 

whose digestive system is so much impaired as to be incapa- 
ble of separating the nutritious portions. 

Men of very inferior poAvers, sometimes, by immediate 
observation, discover perfectly new facts empirically ; and 
may thus be of service in furnishing materials to those 
master minds that, by their skilful selection and combining 
of truths long and generally known, elicit important, and 
hitherto unthought of, conclusions. Theirs are master minds, 
to whom the others stand in the same relation as the brick- 
maker or stone quarrier to the architect. 

Information, as to matters of fact, may easily be referred 
in the mind to the person from whom we have derived it : 
but scientific truths, when thoroughly embraced, become 
much more a part of the mind, as it were ; since they rest, 
not on the authority of the instructor, but on reasoning from 
data, which we ourselves furnish : they are scions engrafted 
on the stems previously rooted in our own soil ; and wc are 
apt to confound them with its indigenous productions. 

Information, gives us absolutely new knowledge ; Instruc- 
tion developes what we had. 

The office of a philosopher is to infer ; of an advocate, to 
prove. 

The number of those who are, not only qualified to appre- 
ciate justly the force of arguments, but who are also accus- 
tomed to this employment of their faculties, is probably less 
than is supposed. When a man maintains, on several points, 
opinions which are true, and assigns good and sufficient 
reasons for them, both he himself and others are apt to 



238 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

conclude at once that he is convinced by those reasons ; 
whereas the truth will often be that he has taken upon trust 
both the premises and the conclusion, as well as the connexion 
between them ; that he is indolently repeating what he has 
heard, without performing any process of reasoning in his 
own mind ; and that, if he had not been early trained or 
predisposed to admit the conclusion, and it had been presented 
to him as a novelty, the arguments which support it, though 
in themselves valid, would have had little or no weight with 
him. If such a man then enters on any new field of enquiry, 
his deficiencies at once become apparent. He is in a situation 
analogous to that of children, taught by a negligent or un- 
skilful master, who are often found able, apparently, to read 
with great fluency in a book they have been accustomed to, 
though, in reality, they are not so much reading, as repeating 
by rote the sentences they have often gone over ; and, if 
tried in a new book, are at a loss to put two syllables to- 
gether. 

People often read good books because it is a good thing to 
read good books ; and because everything they have read is 
perfectly good and true, they set it down among the praise- 
worthy actions of their life : instead of regarding such studies 
as means, and means only, towards a further end, the non- 
attainment of which renders them as utterly worthless as the 
act of sowing the land with seed that never comes up. This 
fully accounts for the approbation bestowed on religious and 
moral books, when they are utterly undeserving of it. If a 
farmer was paid for sowing his seed merely, and had no 
anxiety to get a good crop, he would not distinguish very 
accurately between good seed and bad. Some may think 
that a book of this kind, if it does no good, can at least do 
no harm : not so ; for whatever furnishes a man with the 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 239 

pretence of performing a duty wlien he is not, so far does 
harm. 

It is so verj easy to gain the approbation of those who 
are ah'eady of your opinion, and so very difficult to change 
any one's opinion, that nearly the whole effect of writing, as 
far as concerns propagation of doctrines, is upon minds on 
that point fallow — not preoccupied by an opinion, or 
wavering. 

The effect produced by any book or speech of an argumen- 
tative character, on any subject on which diversity of opinion 
prevails, may be compared — supposing the argument to be 
of any weight — to the effects of a fire-engine on a conflagra- 
tion. That portion of the water which falls on solid stone 
walls, is poured out Avhere it is not needed. That, again, 
which falls on blazing beams and rafters, is cast off in volumes 
of hissing steam, and will seldom avail to quench the fire. 
But that which is poured on wood work that is just beginning 
to kindle, may stop the burning ; and that which wets the 
rafters not yet ignited, but in danger, may save them from 
catching fire. Even so, those who already concur with the 
writer as to some point, will feel gratified with, and perhaps 
bestow high commendation on an able defence of the opinion 
they already held; and those, again, who have fully made up 
their minds on the opposite side, are more likely to be dis- 
pleased than to be convinced. But both of these parties are 
left nearly in the same mind as before. Those, however, who 
are in a hesitating and doubtful state, may very likely be decided 
by forcible arguments. And those who have not hitherto 
considered the subject, may be induced to adopt opinions 
which they find supported by the strongest reasons. But the 
readiest and warmest approbation an author meets with, will 



240 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

usually be from those whom lie has not convinced, because 
they were convinced already. And the effect, the most 
important and the most difficult to be produced, he will 
usually, when he does produce it, hear the least of. Those 
whom he may have induced to reconsider, and gradually to 
alter, previously fixed opinions, are not likely, for a time at 
least, to be very forward in proclaiming the change. 

If there could be a book (on moral or religious subjects) 
which every one thought very convincing, this would be a 
sign that it had convinced nobody. 

What most people most readily and most cordially approve, 
is the echo of their own sentiments ; and whatever efiect this 
may produce, if any, must be short-lived. We hear of 
volcanic islands thrown up in a few days to a formidable 
size, and, in a few weeks or months, sinking down again or 
washed away ; while other islands, which are the summits 
of banks covered with weed and drift sand, continue slowly 
increasing year after year, century after century. The man 
that is in a hurry to see the full effects of his own tillage, 
should cultivate annuals and not forest trees. 

Observation digs the materials; Reasoning erects the 
building. 

The idea of enlightening incorrect reasoners by supplying 
them with additional facts, is an error similar to that of the 
two boys, in the tale of Sandford and Merton, who, having 
put to a house a flat roof, through which, of course, the rain 
came, vainly thought to remedy their mistake by laying on 
more straw. 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 241 

Susceptibility is the foundation of attachment ; but it is 
strength of feeling that ripens it into a genial and durable 
friendship. 

So far as any human fault or folly is peculiar to any par- 
ticular age or country, its effects may be expected to pass 
away soon, without spreading very widely ; but so far as it 
belongs to human nature in general, we must expect to find 
the evil effects of it reappearing, again and again, in various 
forms, in all ages, and in various regions. Plants brought 
from a foreign land, and cultivated by human care, may often 
be, by human care, extirpated, or may even perish for want 
of care ; but the indigenous product of the soil, even when 
seemingly eradicated, will again and again be found spring- 
ing up afresh: 

" Sponte sua quae se toUunt in luminis oras 
Infecunda quidem, sed lasta et fortia surgunt, 
Quippe sola natura subest." 

Ten thousand of the greatest faults m our neighbours, are 
of less consequence to us than one of the smallest in our- 
selves. 

The relief that is afforded to mere want, as want, tends to 
increase that want. 

Vices and frailties correct each other, like acids and alka- 
lies. If each vicious man had but one vice, I do not know 
how the world coukLgo on. 

The power of duly appreciating little things, belongeth to 
a great mind : a narrow-minded man has it not ; for to him 
they are great things. 
21 



242 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

Many a one is apt to conclude tbat "wliatever is left to a 
man's discretion, is left to his indiscretion. 

Many a would-he great knave is, fi*om intellectual defi- 
ciency, only a small knave. 

What is very clearly demonstrated will often appear to a 
superficial reader so evident as to need no demonstration ; 
and the ability which has been employed to maJce it thus plain 
and evident, is disparaged in consequence of its own success. 
When the hills are completely cut away, and the chasm 
bridged over, and the swamps rendered firm, so that the 
steam-carriage glides smoothly along, the traveller is apt to 
think lightly of the obstacles that were to be overcome. 

The task allotted to the Christian in all human transac- 
tions, is not to obtain men's gratitude and good-will ; but to 
deserve it 

It is not enough for the Christian to conform his faith to 
the doctrines of his religion ; but he must also conform his 
temper to its spirit. 

A. member of any Church that acknowledges the divine 
authority of Scripture, and yet maintains persecuting dog- 
mas, must be inconsistent, whether he hold to the Gospel 
against his Church, or to his Church against the Gospel. 

As so many men are in several points, ^vorse than their 
principles, so men may occasionally be found better than 
some of their principles. 

Some who are continually calling attention to the empty 
or half-empty churches in some parishes, while wholly over- 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 243 

looking the tlirce times as many parishes in which there is a 
distressing want of church accommodation, seem to proceed 
in the way that Balak did with Balaam, " Come now and I 
will bring thee to another place, where thou shalt see but 
the uttermost part of them, and shalt not see them all ; and 
curse me then from thence." 

Every page of history furnishes instruction wherewith to 
judge of the future by the past, and to supply rules, not only 
of public expediency, but also of private duty. 

In considering remote events, too little allowance is made, 
while in recent cases, too much is made, for the circumstances 
in which the agents Avere placed. 

We ought never to look back on our emancipation from a 
corrupt system, without also looking forward to guard vigi- 
lantly against the like corruptions. 

Every instance of a man's suffering the penalty of the 
law, is an instance of the failure of that penalty in effecting 
its purpose, which is, to deter. 

Many a man renounces the shackles of Papal infallibility, 
as it were in a spirit of rivalry, that he may become a Pope 
to himself. 

No general principles can ever teach their own application, 
or supersede the exercise of practical good sense, cautious 
deliberation and Christian candour. 

It is one thing to wish to have Truth on our side, and 
another thing to wish to be on the side of Truth. 



244 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

A preacher should ask himself, " Am I about to preach 
because I want to say something, or because I have some- 
thing to say ?" 

There are some persons who are ready to denounce, as 
persecuting, every system which does not leave them at 
liberty to persecute others. 

To inflict, or to denounce, punishment, must be either a 
duty or a sin. 

Stumbling-blocks in religion will always be found by those 
who seek them. 

Charity is not to be attained, at the expense of our faith 
and our hope. 

The ordinary popular use of the words "moral" and 
"morality" is much more limited than what may be called 
the philosophical sense of them : the latter comprehending 
the tempers, as well as the outward acts to which the popular 
sense is, usually, restricted. 

It is too often forgotten, that better does not necessarily 
imply "good." 

He only is exempt from failures, who makes no efforts. 

Some persons see no medium between regarding a point as 
absolutely essential, or absolutely indifferent. 

Men find self-congratulation more agreeable than self-ex- 
amination. 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 245 

Good manners are a part of good morals. 

Though a course of action be in itself better than the one 
a man judges to be right, it would not be right for him to 
take it, if at variance with his own convictions. 

We must beware of hastily taxing with wilful blindness, 
those whose views are limited onlj bj the lowness of their 
position. 

Never, while the world lasts, will the inconsiderate and 
the violent be prevented from confounding together things, 
which differ only in the point which is of most essential im- 
portance, or from indiscriminately censuring whatever has 
been much abused. 

Falsehood is difficult to be maintained. Wlien the mate- 
rials of a ^ building are solid blocks of stone, very rude 
architecture will suffice ; but a structure of rotten materials 
needs the most careful adjustment to make it stand at all. 

He who points out the improbability of a current story, is 
not bound to suggest an hypothesis of his own. One may 
surely be allowed to hesitate in admitting the stories, which 
the ancient poets tell, of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions 
being caused by imprisoned giants, without being called upon 
satisfactorily to account for these phenonema. 

The very difference between the cases of those in different 
ages and countries from our own, makes the examples adduced 
from them more instructive, by proving that they are' not 
copied the one from the other, but originate in a common and 
deep-seated source. 
21 * 



246 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

Men underrate the danger of any evil that has been escaped. 

No original and essentially inherent principle of the human 
mind, any more than any organ of the human body, is in 
itself either mischievous or useless. The maxim that Nature 
does nothing in vain, is not more true in the material, than 
in the moral, world. 

It is a folly to expect men to do all that they may reason- 
ably be expected to do. 

Most men are admii-ers of justice, — when justice happens 
to be on their side. 

We should ever regard that as the worst extreme, to which 
we are by nature the more prone. 

In proportion as we approach towards a state of anarchy, 
we are always approaching to the condition of the worst kind 
of oligarchy, — the domineering of a few violent and unscrupu- 
lous men over the rest. 

Csesar was not the only man who would rather be the first 
in a village than the second at Rome. 

To detect the excess of a disposition totally unlike our 
own, is as easy as it is of little concern to us ; while to guard 
against our own peculiar propensities, is at once the hardest 
task, and, to ourselves, incomparably the most important. 

The more confidently secure we feel against our liability 
to any error, to which in fact we are liable, the greater must 
be our danger of falling into it. 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS, 247 

In our judgment of human transactions, the law of optics 
is reversed ; we see the most indistinctly, the objects which 
are close around us. 

Of all hostile feelings, Envy is perhaps the hardest to be 
subdued, because hardly any one owns it, even to himself; 
but looks out for one pretext after another to justify his 
hostility. 

The mistaJce a man makes by a false statement advan- 
tageous to his views, is like the mistake a man sometimes 
makes of taking a better umbrella by chance, instead of his 
own, and then, not thinking it worth while to return it. 

Whatever is worth mentioning at all, is worth mentioning 
correctly. 

He who has trumpeted forth an accusation, ought not to 
think it sufficient to whisper his recantation. 

Some are satisfied with not cherishing faults in themselves, 
while they are. quietly tolerating them. A plant may be in 
a garden from two causes, either from being planted de- 
signedly, or found there and left there. Either implies some 
degree of approval. 

To enquire how we would act in any supposed case, even 
when such as could not possibly occur, is to apply a test 
which decomposes, as the chemists say, the complex mass of 
our motives, and enables us to ascertain on what principle we 
are acting. 

Men often regard as zeal for God's honour, what is 
perhaps, in truth, rather zeal for their own honour. 



248 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

An evil propensity confessed is half cured : people irritate 
themselves, bj trying to prove that they are not irritable. 

So intimate is the connection of different errors, that they 
will generally be found, if not directly to generate, yet 
mutually to foster and promote one another. 

So strong is the combined attraction of Antiquity and 
Novelty, that any system that offers gratification to the desire 
for both, needs a very small portion of truth to gain it eager 
and general acceptance. 

Men are not always right in their use of their rights. 

The imprudent spendthrift, finding that he is able to afford 
this, or that, or the other, expense, forgets that all of them 
together will ruin him. 

A statesman, without wisdom, does mischief in proportion 
as he is clever. 

Some men's reputation seems like seed-wheat, which thrives 
best when brought from a distance. 

Our best feelings should ever be under the control of our 
best judgment. 

Affectation seems rather a sign of modesty, than of conceit. 
Who would paint if they thought their natural complexion 
good ? But many confound iogQih.ev »va7iity and self-conceit, 
which are different in themselves, and often tend to opposite 
resu!lts. 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 249 

In the strong objections to every plan that may be pro- 
posed, men are apt to forget the strong objections there are 
to adopting no plan at all. A man may have it in his power 
to go to a place where he wishes to be, either by sea or by 
land, and there may be advantages in each mode of travelling, 
but if he is resolved to forego no7ie of those advantages, he 
can never set out. 

If a man is not too mad to intend what he does, he is not 
too mad to be punished for it. 

Some speak so vehemently of their feeling no anger and 
very great contempt for any attack made upon them, as to 
raise a suspicion that they feel just the reverse. 

It is remarkable that a man is usually less offended with 
those who profess to understand what he does not, than with 
those who acknowledge their inability to comprehend what 
he holds to be clearly intelligible ; since these last will appear 
to entertain a suspicion, at least, of what is, probably, the 
truth, that he has been deluding himself with empty falla- 
cies, and grasping a phantom. 

How easy it is to forgive injuries, compared with m ny 
things that are no injuries ! But people may object to this 
use of the word forgive ; Ave Avill not insist on using it, though 
Miss Elizabeth Smith says, " A woman has need of extraor- 
dinary gentleness and modesty to be forgiven for possessing 
superior ability and learning." And she, I believe, was 
forgiven, accordingly. 

But not to insist on a word, — instead of "forgive" say 
"judge fairly, and feel kindly," towards 

(1.) One who adheres to the views which were yours, and 
which you have changed (this was one of Paul's trials). 



250 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEaMS. 

(2.) One who had proved right in the warning and advice 
he gave you, and which you rejected. 

"I bear you no ill-will, Lizzy," says Mr. Bennett in Miss 
Austen's Pride and Prejudice, " for being justified in the 
warning you gave me : considering how matters have turned 
out, I think this shows some magnanimity." 

(3.) One who is preferred to you by the woman you are in 
love with ; or has carried off some other prize from you : 
especially if he has attained with little or no exertion, what 
you have been striving hard for, without success. (Vid. 
Arist. Rhetoric, qj^uvos). 

(4.) One who has succeeded in some enterprise when you 
had predicted failure. 

In all these and some other cases, there is evidently no 
injury: and therefore "I hate," some will say, "to hear 
forgiveness spoken of, when in fact there is nothing to for- 
give." Be it so : but do not go on to imagine that you have 
therefore no need to keep down, with strong effort, just the 
same kind of feelings that you would have, if there had been 
an injury. 

If you take for granted because there is no injury, there- 
fore there is no care needful to repress such feelings, inas- 
much as they are so manifestly unjust, the result will be that 
you will not repress, but indulge them. You will never 
acknowledge to yourself the real ground of your resentful 
feelings (as you do in the case of an injury), but you will find 
out some other ground, real or imaginary: "it is not that 
the man adheres to his own original views ; but that he 
maintains them with uncharitable violence : it is not that I 
grudge him his success ; but that he is too much puffed up 
with it ; or he is not fully deserving of it," &c. 

If you cultivate, in the right way, the habit of forgiving 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 251 

injuries, you will acquire it ; and not else. And if you are 
content with tJiis, and do not cultivate that candour which I 
have been speaking of. you will be deficient in that : for be 
assured it docs not grow wild in the soil of the human heart. 
And the groundlessness and injustice of the feelings which 
ivill grow wild there, is a reason, not why you should neglect 
to extirpate them, but why you should be the more ashamed 
of not doing so. 

To expect to tranquillize and benefit a country by gratify- 
ing its agitators, would be like the practice of the supersti- 
tious of old, with their sympathetic powders and ointments ; 
who instead of applying medicaments to the wound, contented 
themselves with salving the sword which had inflicted it. 
Since the days of Dane-gelt downwards, nay, since the world 
was created, nothing but evil has resulted from concessions 
made to intimidation. 

Conflicting prejudices serve as an imperfect substitute for 
impartiality. And if no wise and moderate measures were 
framed and adopted, except by wise and moderate men, the 
world would go on much worse than it does. 

That is, in a great degree, true of all men, which was said 
of the Athenians, that they were like sheep, of which a flock 
is more easily driven than a single one. 

Kindle the dry sticks, and the green ones will catch. 

If you begin by attempting to reform, and to instruct, 
those who need reformation and instruction the most, you 
will often find them unwilling to listen to you. Like green 
sticks, they will not catch fire. But if you begin with the 
most teachable and best disposed, when you have succeeded 



252 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

in improving these, they -will be a help to you in improving 
the others. 

Children and fools should not see a work that is half done. 
They have not the sense to see what the artist is designing. 
The whole of this world that we see, is a worh half done ; 
and thence fools are apt to find fault with Providence. 

Clouds afar look black or gay ; 
Closely seen, they all are grey. 

It is just so with many a public man, who will be found 
by those immediately around him neither so detestable nor 
so admirable, as perhaps he is thought by opposite parties. 

A character which will not defend itself, is seldom worth 
defending. 

Silver gilt will often pass, 
Silver for gold, or else for brass. 

Some men who, at the first glance, give the idea of some- 
thing very superior indeed, rather beyond what they really 
are, are ultimately either underrated or overrated. 

The generality of mankind are as good and as wise as • 

the generality. 

A man's coat may well fit him, when it is made to his 
measure. 

Never is the mind less fitted for self-examination, than 
when most occupied in detecting the faults of others. 

T9 deprecate the utility of secondary motives, is to 
betray an ignorance of human nature. 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 253 

Mankind are not formed to live without ceremony and 
form: The "inward, spiritual grace" is vei-y apt to be lost 
without the " external, visible sign." Many are continually 
settino- up for the expulsion of ceremonies from this or that, 
and often, with advantage, when they have so multiplied as 
to grow burdensome ; but if ever they have carried this too 
far, they have been either forced to bring back some cere- 
monies, or have found the want of them. The same is found 
in the minor department of manners ; when form is too 
much neglected, true politeness sufi'ers diminution ; then, we 
are obliged to bring some back, and when these again groAV 
burdensome, we lay them aside again ; so that there is a 
continual flux and reflux. Upon the whole, we may conclude 
that ceremony and form of every kind derive their necessity 
from our imperfection. If we were perfectly spiritual, we 
might worship God Avithout any form at all, without ever 
uttering words ; as we are not, it is a folly to say, " One 
may be just as pious on one day as another, in one place or 
posture as another," &c. I answer, angels may; man cannot. 
Again, if we were all perfectly benevolent, good-tempered, 
attentive to the gratifying of others, &c., we might dispense 
with all the forms of good-breeding ; as it is, we cannot ; we 
are not enough of heroes to fight without discipline. Selfish- 
ness will be sure to assail us if we once let the barriers be 
broken down. At the same time it is evident from what has 
been said, that the higher our nature is carried, the less form 
we need. 

But though we may deservedly congratulate society on 
being able to dispense with this or that ceremony, do not let 
us be in a hurry to do so, till we are sure we can do without 
it. It is taking away crutches to cure the gout. The op- 
posite extreme of substituting the external form for the thing 
signified, is not more dangerous or more common, than the 



254 ^^scELLANEous apophthegms. 

neglect of that form. It is all very well to say, " There is 
no use in bidding good-morrow or good-night to those who 
know I wish it ; of sending one's love, in a letter, to those 
who do not doubt it," &c. All this is very well in theory, 
but it will not do for practice. Scarce any friendship, or any 
politeness, is so strong as to be able to subsist without any 
external supports of this kind ; and it is even better to have 
too much form than too little. 

Men are admired for what they are, commended for what 
they do, and macarized for what they have. 

He that assails error because it is error, without respect 
of persons, must be prepared for a storm from the party who 
were fanning him with the gentle breath of applause, so long 
as he had been dealing with the errors of the party opposed 
to them. They say with the rat, — 

" This cat, if she murder a rat, 
Must needs be a very great sinner, 
But to dine upon mice, can't be counted a vice ; 
I myself like a mouse for my dinner," * 

Men often earnestly, but not very successfully, endeavour 
to put down that party which they have themselves fostered 
into strength and popularity. The little birds — according to 
the proverb — which are vainly chasing about the full-grown 
cuckoo, had themselves reared it as a nestling. And the 
horse in the fable, who, seeking aid against his enemy the 
stag, had allowed an insidious ally to mount, and to put his 
bit into his mouth, found it afterwards no easy matter to 
unseat him. 

* Quoted from recollections of a ludicrous poem on a bouse much in- 
fested with rats, iuto which a cat had been introduced. 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 255 

No appellation, however honourable in itself, and however 
fairly applicable, can be innocently assumed as the badge of 
a party. Those of the Corinthians, who said, "I am of 
Christ," using the title to distinguish them /row other mem- 
bers of the same Ohurch, were no less censured than those 
who said, "I am of Paul," or "I am of Apollos." 

Men become attached to a party in whose ranks they have 
fought. 

The stream of truth is gentle, but permanent ; while pas- 
sionate party-clamour is like a winter torrent, — impetuous, 
but transitory. 

Unhappily, a great portion of our species are not very 
wise, and a good many of them not very honest. The former, 
if they hear of a person who does not admit the grounds on 
Avhich they believe something, take for granted that he does 
not believe it at " all ; and the latter think it meritorious to 
take advantage of the silliness of the others, to garble and 
misrepresent their opponent's expressions, in order to expose 
him to odium, thus acting like those tyrannical emperors, 
who used to dress up their victims in the skins of wild beasts, 
and then set dogs at them to worry them to death. 

It is worth remarking that Party Spirit, in its violation of 
Shakespeare's maxim, "Nothing extenuate, nor set down 
aught in malice," generally unites the two opposite extremes. 
For, it is the tendency of party spirit to pardon anything in 
those who heartily support the party, and nothing in those 
who do not. 

Those who, from single sentences and passages apart from 
the context, represent an author as favouring Socinian, Sa- 



256 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

bellian, or Arian views, should recollect that the same is 
notoriously the case with the Bible itself ; since othei'wise, 
those sects — each appealing to Scripture, which they interpret 
according to their own respective views — never could have 
arisen. 

To misrepresent the argument of an opponent, is virtually 
to admit that what he has really said, is not open to refutation. 

The principal cautions to he observed in the treatment and 
judgment of those who differ from us, whether on minor or 
essential points, are, first, to beware of mistahing the mean- 
ing of any one, and imputing to him sentiments which he 
does not really entertain; secondly, to make due allowance 
for weakness of intellect, backwardness in knowledge and 
inaptitude for accurate statements ; and thirdly, to allow also 
for such differences of natural or acquired temper and taste, 
as imply nothing sinful ; differences which even divine inspira- 
tion, as we may perceive from the characteristic style of 
composition of each of the sacred Avriters, does not entirely 
do away. 

The difference between self-love and selfishness has been 
well explained by Aristotle ; though he has not accounted 
for the use of the Avord (piXauTia. It is clear that selfishness 
exists only in -reference to others, and could have no place in 
one who lived alone on a desert island, though he might have 
of course every degree of self-love ; for selfishness is not an 
excess of self-love, and consists not in an over-desire of 
happiness, but in placing your happiness in something which 
interferes with, or leaves you regardless of, that of others. 

It is a mistake to suppose, that selfishness and want of 
feeling are either the same, or inseparable. Now, on the one 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 257 

hand, I have known such as have had very little feeling, hut 
felt for others as much nearly as for themselves ; and were, 
therefore, far from selfish : and, on the other hand, some of 
very acute feelings, feel for no one but themselves, and in- 
deed, are sometimes amongst the most cruel. 

Again, some are capable of making grand and generous 
sacrifices on great occasions, who yet indulge an habitually 
selfish temper in trifles. 

It is remarkable, that freedom from selfishness is not a 
virtue that is particularly well learned from example, but 
rather the contrary ; e. g., a parent who is never thinking of 
her own convenience, but always of her children's advantage, 
will be likely to let that too plainly appear, so as to fill the 
child with an idea that everything is to give way to him, and 
that his concerns are an ultimate end. Nay, the very pains 
taken with him in strictly controlling him, heighten his idea 
of his own vast importance ; whereas a parent who is selfish, 
will be sure to accustom the child to sacrifice his own conve- 
nience ; and to understand that he is of much less importance 
than the parent ; and so in some other cases. Accordingly, 
selfishness is caught from those who have least of it. 

Aristotle had the eye of a bird, both telescopic and mi- 
croscopic. 

One of the most exalted and least acquirable, talents is 
Totality ; not every one who has bricks, has a house. 

The more a man knows, the more he will feel of admira- 
tion, and the less of surprise. 

Though the word "Pedantry" is applied, almost exclu- 
sively, to the introduction in ordinary conversation of learned 



258 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

technicalities ; yet tlie thing is found in all professions ; und 
chiefly in those which are not learned ; no one has it more 
than the sailor. 

The most ordinary and unimportant actions of a man's ■ 
life, will often show more of his natural character and his 
habits than more important actions, which are done delihe- 
rately, and sometimes against his natural inclinations. And 
again ; what is said or done by very inferior persons, who 
seldom think for themselves, or act resolutely on their own 
judgment, is the best sign of what is commonly said or done 
in the place and time in which they live. A man of resolute 
character and of an original turn of thought, is less likely to 
be led by those around him, and, therefore, does not furnish 
so good a sign of what are the prevailing opinions and 
customs. 

Concealment is the great spur to curiosity, which gives an 
interest to investigation. The celebrated Letters of Junius 
would, probably, have long since been forgotten, if the 
author could have been clearly pointed out at the time. 

Men are never so ready to study the interior of a subject, 
as when there is something of a veil thrown over the exterior. 

Every precaution not to offend the pride of others has an 
obvious tendency to allay it. The less the wound is chafed, 
the more likely it is to heal. 

It is worth remarking, that many persons are of such a 
disposition as to be nearly incapable of remaining in doubt 
on any point that is not wholly uninteresting to. them. They 
speedily make up their minds on each question, and come to 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 259 

some conclusion, whetlier there are any good grounds for it 
or not. And judging — as men are apt to do, in all matters 
— of others, from themselves, they usually discredit the most 
solemn assurances of any one who professes to be in a state 
of doubt on some question ; taking for granted that if you 
do not adopt their opinion, you must be of the opposite. 

Others again there are, who are capable of remaining in 
doubt as long as the reasons on each side seem exactly 
balanced ; but not otherwise. Such a person, as soon as he 
perceives any — the smallest — preponderance of probability 
on one side of a question, can no more refrain from deciding 
immediately, and with full conviction, on that side, than he 
could continue to stand, after having lost his equilibrium, in 
a slanting position, like the famous tower at Pisa. And he 
will, accordingly, be disposed to consider an acknowledgment 
that there are somewhat the stronger reasons on one side, as 
equivalent to a confident decision. 

The tendency to such an error is the greater, from the 
circumstance, that there are so many cases, in practice, 
wherein it is essentially necessary to come to a practical 
decision, even where there are no sufficient grounds for 
feeling fully convinced that it is the right one. A traveller 
may be in doubt, and may have no means of deciding, with 
just confidence, which of two roads he ought to take; while 
yet he must, at a venture, take one of them. And the like 
happens in numberless transactions of ordinary life, in which 
we are obliged practically to make up our minds at once to 
take one course or another, even where there are no sufficient 
grounds for a full conviction of the understanding. 

The infirmities above mentioned are those of ordinary 
minds. A smaller number of persons, among whom, how- 
ever, are to be found a larger proportion of the intelligent, 
are prone to the ojDposite extreme ; that of not deciding, as 



260 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

long as there are reasons to be found on both sides, even 
though there may be a clear and strong jireponderance on 
the one, and even though the case may be such as to call for 
a practical decision. As the one description of men rush 
hastily to a conclusion, and trouble themselves little about 
premises, so, the other carefully examine premises, and care 
too little for conclusions. The one decide without enquiring, 
the other enquire without deciding. 

A charge without proof, as a verdict without evidence, 
must always be unjust; whether the accused be, in fact, 
innocent or guilty. 

The imperfect and confused sympathy we have with others, 
in respect of their feelings towards us, and indeed universally, 
may be likened to nothing so well as to the mixture of 
transparency and reflection in plate-glass. We sympathize, 
as Adam Smith observes, with an idiot or a madman ; form- 
ing an indistinct idea of being in his situation, and at the 
same time retaining (which is a contradictory supposition) 
our present vioAvs of his actions. Just as one looks through 
the window at a tree, and sees, by an imperfect reflection, 
his own face as if placed in the midst of the tree ; which if it 
were, he could not have that view of the tree. And even so, 
we cannot imagine people talking of us after our death, 
without the idea presenting itself of our hearing what they 



We never can be sure what would be our impression 
derived from such and such a passage alone, and without 
any reference to our pre-conceived notions. It is one of the 
most difiicult exercises of imagination to fancy yourself igno- 
rant of what you really know, and a mere white sheet of 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 261 

paper in reference to some subject on wliicli you have 
actually formed opinions. A Jury is often exhorted by the 
Judge to give a verdict entirely from the evidence given in 
court, without any regard to what they may have heard or 
thought previously ; all which, they are to divest themselves 
of, and lay aside. But this is a precept easier to give than 
to observe : e.g., if you had never at once handled and looked 
at a globe and a cube, or a dog and a cat, you would not, on 
seeing them for the first time, know which was which. 
Bishop Berkeley undertook to prove this ; but it was thought 
a monstrous paradox till experiments proved that he was 
right. Words expressing some, tJiing seem to us to imply 
what has been in our minds associated with that thing. 

Writers of great note have declaimed on the much stricter 
observance, in the Universe, of the laws of Nature, than, in 
mankind, of the divine and human laws, overlooking the yet 
obvious distinction, that, in the former case, it is the obser- 
vance that constitutes the law, wherea-s in the other case, the 
law is not moi'e or less a law from the conformity, or noncon- 
formity, of individuals to it. 

Weak men, having been warned that "wisdom and wit" 
are not the same thing, and that ridicule is not the test of 
Truth, distrust everything that can possibly be regarded as 
witty; not having judgment to perceive the combination, 
when it occurs, of Wit with sound Reasoning. The ivy-wreath 
conceals from their view the point of the Thyrsus. He that 
can laugh at what is ludicrous, and at the same time preserve 
a clear discernment of sound and unsound reasoning, is no 
ordinary man. 

Many are sometimes scandalized when some folly that has 
been forced into connection with religion is laughed at as if 



262 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

religion itself were ridiculed. It is true, indeed, that to 
attack even error in religion with mere ridicule, is no wise 
act, because good things may be ridiculed as well as bad. 
But it surely cannot be our duty to abstain from showing 
plainly that absurd things are absurd, merely because people 
cannot help smiling at them. If so, the more directly 
absurd anything is, the more secure it is from refutation ; 
since it is impossible to refute such things, without placing 
them in a ludicrous point of view. A tree is not impaired 
by being cleared of mosses and lichens, nor Truth, by having 
folly or sophistry torn away from around it. 

The essence of a Jest is its mimic sophistry — a sophistry 
so palpable as not to be likely to deceive any one, but yet 
bearing just that resemblance of argument which is calculated 
to amuse by the contrast ; in the same manner that a parody 
does, by the contrast of its levity with the serious production 
which it imitates. There is indeed, something laughable even 
in fallacies which are intended for serious conviction, when 
they are thoroughly exposed. 

There are several different kinds of joke and raillery which 
will be found to correspond with the different kinds of fallacy. 
The Pun (to take the simplest and most obvious case) is 
evidently, in most instances, a mock argument founded on a 
palpable equivocation of the middle-term. It is probable, 
indeed, that all jests, sports, or games, properly so called, 
will be found, on examination, to be imitative of serious 
transactions, as of War or Commerce. 

That censure and commendation should, in many instances 
be indiscriminate, can surprise no one who recollects how 
rare a quality discrimination is ; and how much better it suits 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 263 

indolence, as well as ignorance, to lay down a rule than to 
ascertain the excerptions to it. 

How many act like Sinbad's monkeys, who pelted their 
enemies with cocoa-nuts ! 

He that is truly wise and great, 
Lives both too early and too late. 

A very eminent man comes too late for some purposes, and 
too early for others. 

True generosity seems to consist chiefly in standing hy, as 
it were, to contemplate all your own actions in the character 
of an unconcerned and judicious spectator: imperiously 
dictating to yourself, in spite of all individual feelings, 
that conduct which Avould appear to such a spectator the 
most beautiful. " 

It is a curious circumstance, when persons past forty 
before they were at all acquainted, form together a very 
close intimacy of friendship. For grafts of old wood to 
take, there must be a wonderful congeniality between the 
trees. 

Two people, who are each of an unyielding temper, will 
not act well together ; and people who are all of tliem of a 
very yielding temper, will be likely to resolve on nothing ; 
just as stones without morter make a loose wall, and morter 
alone, no wall. So says the proverb — 

"Hard upon hard makes a bad stone wall, 
But soft upon soft makes none at all. 

Increase of a thing is often confounded with our increased 
knowledge of it. When crimes or accidents are recorded in 



264 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

newspapers more than formerly, some people fancy tliat they 
liapioen more than formerly. But crimes, especially (be it ob- 
served) such as are the most remote from the experience of 
each individual, and therefore strike him as something strange, 
always furnish interesting articles of intelligence. I have no 
doubt that a single murder in Great Bi'itain has often furnished 
matter for discourse, to more than twenty times as many 
persons as any twenty such murders would in Turkey. 

Some foreign traveller in England is said to have remarked 
on the perceptible diminution in the number of crimes 
committed during the sitting of Parliament as a proof of our 
high reverence for that assembly ; the fact being, as we all 
know, that the space occupied in the newspapers by the 
Debates causes the records of many crimes to be omitted. 

This tendency to overrate the amount of whatever is 
known, seen, and definite, as compared with^what is (either 
from the nature of the case, or accidentally) unknown or 
less known — unseen — indefinite, is a most important princi- 
ple to keep in mind for the correction of a whole class of 
errors in popular judgment. — Under this head comes the 
supposed superiority of Vfisdom attributed to cautious, 
reserved, non-confiding, do-nothing characters, as compared 
with the more open, unreserved, energetic and parihesiastic 
characters. Of course, every one will admit that there may 
be an extreme either way. But take the average, the 
moderate description, of each class, and you will find that a 
dozen of the more open and daring character, supposing an 
equality in other points in respect of ability, will have had, 
though they do commit a greater number of actual tr^igible 
errors and meet with a greater number of distinct failures, 
have had altogether full as much success, have got on as well, 
if not better, than a dozen of the other. 

Whence then the over-estimate of those who are called the 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 265 

"prudent?" Bc'sause their failures are, in general, indefi- 
nite, and are neither known nor distinctly existing. If I 
never go on horseback, I never incur the definite evil of 
being stopped in a journey by a fall from a horse, or by a 
runaway or restive horse : I may exult over the rider's 
accidents of this kind, but in the long run he will have 
accomplished, in spite of all, more journeys than I could on 
foot. If I let my land be waste, I shall not have to reckon, 
this year and that year, a failure of crop, but my neighbour, 
with all his losses, will perhaps, make more of his farm. He 
who thinks it always best not to mention things, and thus 
trusts no one, is never betrayed, but he loses all the advan- 
tages of friendship. " There are other motes besides those 
in the sun-beam." 

Men are liable to form an over-estimate of the purity of 
morals in the Country, as compared with a Town ; or in a 
barren and thinly-peopled, as compared with a fertile and 
populous district. On a given area, it must always be 
expected, that the absolute amount of vice will be greater in 
a Town than in the Country ; so also will be that of virtue ; 
but the proportion of the two must be computed on quite 
different principles. A physician of great skill and in high 
repute, probably loses many more patients than an ordinary 
practitioner : but this proves nothing, till we have ascertained 
the comparative numbers of their patients. Mistakes such 
as this (which are very frequent) remind one of the well- 
known riddle, "What is the reason that white sheep eat 
morei^>han black ones ?" 

There is no good reason for calling the condition of the 
rudest savages " a state of nature," unless the phrase be used 
(as perhaps in strictness it ought) to denote merely ignorance 
9R 



266 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

of Arts. A plant Avould not be said to be in its natural 
state, "vvhicli was gro-wing in a soil or climate that precluded 
it from putting fortb the flowers and the fruit for which its 
organization was destined. In like manner, the natural 
state of man must, according to all fair analogy, be reckoned, 
not that in which his intellectual and moral growth are, as 
it were, stunted, and permanently repressed, but one in 
which his original endowments are, not indeed brought to 
perfection, but enabled to exercise themselves and to expand, 
like the flowers of a plant; and especially, in which that 
characteristic of our species, the tendency towards progres- 
sive improvement, is permitted to come into play. 

Melancholy as it Is to see, as we may, for instance, in our 
own country, multitudes of Beings of such high qualifications 
and such high destination as Man, absorbed in the pursuit 
of merely temporal objects — occupied in schemes for obtain- 
ing wealth and worldly aggrandizement, without any higher 
views in pursuing them, — we must keep in mind that such a 
devotedness to temporal objects is no characteristic of a more 
wealthy and civilized, as distinguished from a more barbarian, 
state of society; and that the savage is not above such a 
life, but below it. It is not from preferring virtue to wealth 
— the goods of the mind to those of fortune — the next world 
to the present — that he takes so little thought for the mor- 
row ; but, from want of forethought and habitual self-com- 
mand. The civilized man, too often, directs those qualities 
to an unworthy object ; the savage, universally, is deficient 
in the qualities themselves. The one is a stream flowing, too 
often, in a wrong channel, and which needs to have its course 
altered ; the other is a stagnant pool. 

The declaimers upon the incompatibility or discordancy 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 267 

of natural Wealth and Virtue, are, by their own showing, 
mere declaimers, and nothing more : Seneca's discourses in 
praise of poverty would, I have no doubt, be rivalled by many 
writers of this island, if one-half of the revenues he drew 
from the then inhabitants of it, by lending them money at 
high interest, were proposed as a prize. Such declaimers 
against wealth resemble the Harpies of Virgil, seeking to ex- 
cite disgust at the banquet of which they are themselves eager 
to partake. 

The goods of this world are by no means a trifling concern 
to Christians, considered as Christians. They a7'e, in them- 
selves, goods ; and it is our part, instead of affecting un- 
gratefully to slight or to complain of God's gifts, to endea- 
vour to make them goods to us, by studying to use them 
aright. Whether indeed we ourselves shall have enjoyed a 
large or a small share of them, will be of no importance to 
us a hundred years hence ; but it will be of the greatest 
importance, whether we shall have employed the faculties 
and opportunities granted to us, in the increase and diffusion 
of those bounties of Providence among others. 

Of the two evils connected with a high degree of division 
of labour, which may prove unfavourable to national morality 

— the evil of reducing each man too much to the condition 
of a mere machine, or rather one part of a machine, by the 
too great concentration of the attention on the performance 
of a single, and sometimes very simple, operation, resulting 
in the contraction of the faculties and consequent debase- 
ment of mind — and the danger of being thrown out of work 

— the appropriate remedies are, I think, to be found in 
judicious education and habits of provident frugality. And 
in another expedient, which provident good sense would 



268 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

suggest, as a safe-guard against the last danger, that the 
several members of a family should betake themselves, as 
far as that is possible, to different occupations. That ad- 
vanced state of society, which is the most exposed to the 
evils, is also the most favourable to the application of the 
remedies. 

Among the classes of persons to whom emigration seems 
peculiarly appropriate, may be mentioned that description of 
workmen, not so frequent in this country now as formerly : 
viz., a Jack-of -all-trades : the perfection to which the sub- 
division of labour has been brought, having caused them to 
fall into disrepute. As Plato remarks of a certain class of 
philosophers (who, notwithstanding the lofty appellation 
bestowed on them, were neither more nor less than artists 
of this description), no one chooses to employ the one man 
who can do many things tolerably, when he can have 
access to several who can do each of them excellently ; and 
hence, though in general men of superior ingenuity, their 
poverty is become proverbial. They have, accordingly, the 
more reason to try their fortune in a young settlement, which 
is exactly their proper field. A scattered .population, bad 
roads, remoteness from towns, and a novel situation, leave in 
a most helpless condition the man who has concentrated all 
his powers in learning to perform some one operation very 
skilfully, and who has no resources. A new country, and a 
young settlement, is the best place, likewise, for many who 
may have been goaded by the pressure of distress, combined 
with the inflammatory declamations of designing men, to feel 
impatient of the burden of taxes and poor-rates. Thus 
irritation will have time and opportunity to subside, in a 
country where there are no tumultuous meetings, in populous 
towns, of unemployed manufacturers ; but where all their 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 269 

neighbours, as well as themselves, have something better to 
do, than to set about new modelling the constitution, — where 
the chief reform called for is to convert forests into corn-fields, 
in which no one will hinder them from laying the axe to the 
root of the evil, — and in which the desire of novelty may be 
fully gratified, without destroying established institutions, — 
where, in short, the whole structure of society is to be built 
up, without being previously pulled down. 

Every settler in a foreign colony is, necessarily, more or 
less, a missionary to the aborigines — a missionai*y for good, 
or a missionary for evil — operating upon them by his life 
and example. 

It is often said that our Colonies ought to provide for their 
own spiritual wants. But the more that is done for them in 
this way, the more likely they will be to make such provi- 
sion ; and the more they are neglected, the less likely they 
are to do it. It is the peculiar nature of the inestimable 
treasure of Christian Truth and Religious Knowledge, that 
the more it is withheld from people, the less they wish for 
it; and the more bestowed upon them, the more they hunger 
and thirst after it. If people are kept upon a short allow- 
ance of food, they are eager to obtain it ; if you keep a man 
thirsty, he will become the more and more thirsty ; if he is 
poor, he is exceedingly anxious to become rich ; but if he is 
left in a state of spiritual destitution, after a time he will, 
and still more his children, cease to feel it, and cease to care 
about it. It is the last want men can be trusted, in the first 
instance, to supply for themselves. 

The direct effects of religion on national character, few 
will be disposed to deny, even of those who believe in no rc- 

9P, t- 



270 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

ligion, since of several cliiferent forms of superstitious error, 
supposing all religions to be such, one may at least be more 
compatible with moral improvement than another. 

Not, however, that religion has not an indirect effect also, 
through its influence on national prosperity. To take one 
point out of many, "War, which, if Christianity were heartily 
and generally embraced, would be wholly unknown, has been, 
even as it is, much mitigated by that humanizing influence. 
Now War is, in the present day, generally regarded, though 
to a far less degree than it really is, as a great destroyer of 
wealth. But the direct demoralizing effect of War is pro- 
bably still greater than its impoverishing effect. The same 
may be said of Slavery, in its various forms, including the 
serfship of the Russians and the Hungarians. If both 
Slavery and War were at an end, the wealth of nations 
would increase, but their civilization in the most important 
parts would increase in a still greater ratio. 

It is characteristic of the puerile and the semi-barbarian 
condition of mind to be disposed to violate the wise maxim 
of "pas trop gouverner." 

In Legislative Punishment, the point that should rank first 
of, and above, all other considerations, is that it should be 
formidable, i. e., that the apprehension of it should operate, 
as much as possible, to deter men from crime, and thus to 
prevent the necessity of its actual infliction ; — secondly, that 
it should be humane; i. e., that it should occasion as little 
as possible of useless suffering — of pain or inconvenience, 
that does not conduce to the point proposed ; — thirdly, that 
it should be corrective, or at least not corrupting ; tending to 
produce in the criminal himself, if his life be spared, and in 
others, either a moral improvement, or, at least, as little as 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 271 

possible of moral debasement ; — and lastly, that it should be 
cheap. . . . This last point is of far less consequence than 
the others. 

The preventive effects of any system, whether for good or 
evil, are hardly ever duly appreciated. We see the crimes 
that are actually committed, and we see the men who are 
hanged for them ; we do not see the crimes that would be 
committed if there were no hanging. 

The occasions for the exercise of a certain power may be 
very few, and yet the existence of the power not the less im- 
portant ; because when such an occasion does arise, (and it is 
the more likely to arise if there be no provision to meet the 
emergency,) the consequence of not being prepared for it 
may be most disastrous. If any one should be so wearied 
with the monotonous " All's well" of the nightly guardians 
of a Camp, hour after hour, and night after night, as to con- 
clude that their service was superfluous, and, accordingly, to 
dismiss them, how much real danger, and how much unneces- 
sary apprehension, would be the result ! 

An evil is not necessarily unreal, because it has been often 
feared without just cause; the wolf does sometimes enter in, 
and make havoc of the flock, although there have been many 
false alarms. 

As custom will often blind men to the good, as well as to 
the evil effects, of any long established system, we should 
never alter for the mere sake of altering. 

As it would not tend much to the improvement of the re- 
gular public high-roads, or to amend the direction of them, 



272 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

should each man be ready to break a pathway for himself, as 
his own convenience may suggest ; so nothing tends more to 
prevent the regular abrogation, or alteration, of unwise laws, 
than the irregular infringement or evasion of them. 

The truest friend to liberty, is the snpporter of regular 
and moderate government ; and the firmest bulwark of royal 
authority, is the judicious advocate of the subject's rights. 

Oppression is a false step, which it is peculiarly difficult to 
retrace. As its brutalizing effects cannot immediately be 
done aAvay by its removal, they at once furnish a pretext for 
justifying it, and make relief hazardous. Kind and liberal 
treatment, if very cautiously and judiciously bestowed, will, 
gradually and slowly, advance men towards the condition of 
being worthy of such treatment : but treat men as aliens or 
enemies, — as slaves, as children, or as brutes, and they will 
speedily and completely justify your conduct. 

The sense of wrong and insult is often felt more than 
injury. It is unpleasant in going through a wood, to have 
the wet boughs bang against one's face ; but who feels this, 
as he should a man's spitting in his face, and slapping him 
at pleasure ? This should be remembered, when comparisons 
are instituted between the condition of the most hard-worked 
labourer in Europe, and that of a Slave. 

Some Systems are defended — and Negro Slavery among 
the rest — by saying, that the evils are merely incidental, and 
form no part of the design. If this means merely, that no 
system should be at once condemned, solely because some 
incidental evils are connected with it, as some must be with 
every system, in this we heartily concur. Navigation is a 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 273 

good thing, although ships are occasionally wrecked, and 
men drowned. But to put out of account, altogether, the 
greater or less liability to abuses, and the greater or less 
enormity of them, and quietly to ignore every incidental 
evil, would be, in the ordinary concerns of life, regarded as 
a proof of insanity. Who, for instance, would leave children 
at play in a room full of loaded fire-arms, and edge-tools, 
and open casks of gunpowder ? Yet the tools were not 
designed to cut them, or the guns to shoot them. If they 
maim, kill, or blow up one another, these are only abuses. 
The best mode we can think of, for disabusing one who holds 
such an opinion, is, that he should take up his abode next 
door to a soap-boiler, with a brazier on the other side of his 
house, a slaughter-house over the way, and a store of gun- 
powder in the vaults beneath him ; being admonished at the 
same time, to remember that if his eyes, nose, and ears, are 
incessantly annoyed, and he is ultimately blown up, these are 
only incidental evils. 

Some, even Englishmen, who have visited Slave States, 
are satisfied at being told that the Slaves are far better off, 
and more civilized there, than in their own barbarian 
countries, which is, probably, for the most part true. But, 
why have the African countries continued so long in gross 
barbarism ? They have long had intercourse with Europeans, 
who might have taught them to raise Sugar and Cotton, &c., 
at home for the European markets, and in other ways might 
have civilized them. And it cannot be said that they are 
incapable of learning, since free Negroes in various countries, 
though they have the disadvantage of being a degraded caste, 
are yet (however inferior to us), far advanced beyond the 
savage tribes of Africa. But it is the very Slave-trade itself 
that has kept them barbarians, by encouraging wars for the 



274 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

purpose of taking captives to be sold as slaves, and tlie 
villanous practices of kidnapping, and trading in each 
other's happiness and liberties. It is the very system itself 
which men seek to excuse, bj pointing out the comfortable 
state of Slaves when they are caught and sold, that, to a 
great extent, produces, and must, if persisted in, perpetuate, 
the barbarous condition with which this comparative comfort 
is contrasted. The whole of these African tribes might, under 
a better system, have enjoyed, in freedom, far, very far, 
greater comfort in their native land, than that which some of 
them now possess, as slaves, in a foreign land. 

Though it may not depend on each of us, whether this, or 
that, evil shall take place ; it does depend on us, whether we 
shall have any share in it. 

It is curious to observe the odd limitations of power, in 
those who seem despotic, and yet cannot do what seem little 
things ; e. g., when the Romans took pessession of Egypt, 
the people submitted, without the least resistance, to have 
their lives and property at the mercy of a foreign nation. 
But one of the Roman soldiers happening to kill a cat in the 
streets of Alexandria, they rose on him and tore him from 
limb to limb ; and the excitement Avas so violent that the 
generals overlooked the outrage for fear of insurrection ! — 
Claudius Csesar tried to introduce a letter which was wanting 
in the Roman Alphabet ; the consonant V as distinct from 
U, they having but one character for both. He ordained 
that ^ (an F reversed) should be that character. It appears 
on some inscriptions in his time ; but he could not establish 
it ; though he could kill or plunder his subjects at pleasure I 
Sd can the Emperor of Russia : but he cannot change the 
ityle. It would displace the days of saints whom his people 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 275 

worship, and it would produce a formidable insurrection ! 
Other instances of this strange kind of anomaly might doubt- 
less be produced. 

It is supposed by most people, that Trial by Jury, as it 
now exists, is one of our most ancient institutions. But 
there is good reason to believe, that, originally, causes were 
decided, not by the Jury, but entirely by the Judge. In 
order to aid him in the Trial, twelve men of respectable 
character were taken from the neighbourhood where the 
witnesses lived, as being likely to know something of them, 
and to be able to form a judgment how far each of them was 
to be trusted. And after these witnesses had been examined 
in their presence, they gave their opinion on the whole of the 
evidence, and the Judge decided. By degrees, however, the 
opinion [or verdict] of the Jury came to be regarded as 
decisive ; and the Judge merely " pronounced judgment," (as 
is done now) according to the Verdict. 

So little do Historians dwell on those ordinary transac- 
tions of human life, which furnish the data from which the 
social progress of nations may be estimated, that this kind 
of information is introduced, for the most part, only inciden- 
tally and obliquely; and is to be collected, imperfectly, 
from scattered allusions. So that if you will give a rapid 
glance, for instance, at the history of these islands from the 
time of the Norman conquest to the present day, not only do 
we find little mention of the causes of social progress, but 
what we chiefly do read of is, the counteracting causes ; viz., 
wars, revolutions, and disturbances of every kind. Now, if 
a ship had performed a voyage of 800 leagues, and the 
register of it contained an account chiefly of the contrary 
winds and currents, and made little mention of favourable 



276 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

gales, we might ■well be at a loss to understand how she 
reached her destination, and might even he led into the 
mistake of supposing that the contrary winds had forwarded 
her in her course. Yet such is History. — It may be said to 
be the record of the impediments to social progress. 

It has often occurred to mo, that the Longevity of the 
Antediluvians may have been a special provision to meet the 
difficulty in the way of social progress, which in those 
early ages must have existed before the invention, and the 
familiar use, of writing had enabled each generation to 
record, for the use of the next, not only its discoveries, but 
its observations, and incomplete experiments. For the more 
you speculate on the probable origin of the various arts, 
which are the most universal among mankind, the more you 
will be struck with this consideration, that many of the 
commonest arts, and which appear the simplest, and require 
but a very humble degree of intelligence for their exercise, 
are yet such, that we must suppose various accidents to have 
occurred, and to have been noted — many observations to 
have been made, and combined — and many experiments to 
have been made, in order to their being originally invented. 
Even now that writing is in use, a single individual, if he 
live long enough to follow up a train of experiments, has a 
great advantage, in respect of discoveries, over a succession 
of individuals ; because he will recollect, when the occasion 
arises, many of his former observations, and of the ideas 
that had occurred to his mind, which, at the time he had 
not thought worth recording. But previous to the use of 
writing, the advantage of being able to combine, in one's 
own person, the experience of several centuries, must have 
been of immense importance ; and it was an advantage which 
the circumstances of the case seemed to require. 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 277 

The absence of written records is, though a very important, 
rather a secondary, than a primary, obstacle, to any forward 
movement in a Community. It is one branch of that 
general characteristic of the Savage, — improvidence. If you 
suppose the case of a savage taught to read and write, but 
allowed to remain in all other respects, the same careless, 
thoughtless kind of Being, and afterwards left to himself, he 
would most likely forget his acquisition, and would certainly, 
by neglecting to teach it to his children, suffer it to be lost 
in the next generation. On the other hand, — if you conceive 
such a case — (which certainly is conceivable, and I am dis- 
posed to think it a real one :) as that of a people ignorant of 
this art, but acquiring in some degree a thoughtful and 
j)rovident character, I have little doubt, that their desire, 
thence arising, to record permanently their Laws, practical 
maxims, and discoveries, would gradually lead them, first, to 
the use of memorial-verses ; and afterwards, to some kind of 
natural symbols, such as picture-writing, and the hiero- 
glyphics ; which might gradually be still further improved 
into writing, properly so called. 

We have no direct information as to the immediate cause 
of the great longevity of the earliest generations of men. 
But it seems likely it may have been produced by the influ- 
ence of '•Hhe Tree of Life;' a vestige of an early tradition 
respecting which appears in Homer, representing his gods as 
supporting perpetual life and vigour by drinking nectar, and 
eating Amhrozia (that is, immortality.) 

That the produce of this tree, (whether its fruits or its 
leaves) was endued by the Creator with some property of 
■warding off death, we are plainly taught, both by its name, 
and by the exclusion of Adam from the Garden of Eden, 
"lest he should eat of the tree of life, and live for ever." 
24 



278 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

It is likely that it had the medicinal virtue, when applied 
from time to time, of preventing, or curing, the decay of old 
age ; just as our ordinary food preserves men from dying of 
exhaustion by famine ; and as several well-known medicines 
prevent, or cure, certain diseases. We know indeed, that 
there does not exist now any medicine that has the virtue of 
keeping up, or renewing, youthful health or vigour. But 
such a medicine would not be, in itself, at all more strange 
than many things which we are familiar with, but whose 
effects we cannot explain, and could never have conjectured. 

For example, that opium and some other drugs should pro- 
duce sleep, and strong liquors, a kind of temporary madness, 
is what no one would ever have thought of, if he had never 
heard of it, nor seen the experiment tried of swallowing 
those substances. Nor, even if he were a skilful chemist, 
would he be able, by analysing them, to conjecture what 
their effects would be. If then the Tree of Life were such 
a medicine as we have supposed, a person who always con- 
tinued the use of it, from time to time, would continue 
exempt from decay and death. 

But supposing some persons, who had been in the habit of 
using it (as our first parents doubtless had, since there was 
nothing to prevent them) should afterwards cease to use it, 
their constitution would, probably, have been so far fortified, 
that though they would at length die, yet they would live 
much longer than man's natural term. And they would even 
be likely to transmit to their descendants such a constitu- 
tion, as would confer on those, also, a great degree of lon- 
gevity, which would only wear out gradually, in many suc- 
cessive generations. 

Now it is remarkable, that this exactly agrees with what 
we, do find recorded. If we look into those parts of the 
Bible history, AVhich relate to this subject, we shall find 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 279 

man's life, in the earliest generations, extending to eight or 
nine centuries, and upwards. And we shall find longevity 
gradually diminishing in each generation, down to the times 
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who lived rather less than 
two hundred years ; and again, down to the time of Moses, 
who began his mission apparently in the full vigour of life at 
four-score, and lived to one hundred and twenty. Joshua, who 
succeeded him, lived one hundred and ten years. And from 
thence forward, human life appears to have been brought 
down to about its present limit. 

The above seems to be the most clear, easy, and natural 
interpretation of those parts of Scripture we have been ex- 
amining. There is not, however, any such distinct revelation 
on the subject as to authorize our pronouncing confidently 
that such must be the right interpretation, and making this 
an article of faith. 

The subject of Animal Instinct seems to form a point of 
contact between Natural History and the Philosophy of the 
Human Mind. And yet, beneficial and interesting as this 
circumstance alone might make this particular branch of 
study, a treatisB upon Instinct is still a desideratum ; some- 
thing like a philosophic or systematic view of the subject — 
a distinct and satisfactory answer to the question; " What do 
you mean by Instinct?" — is still wanting. It seems, that 
however far advanced we may be in a Dictionary on the 
subject of Instinct, a G-rammar is a thing very much 
wanted. 

To say, as many are accustomed to do, that Brutes are 
actuated solely by Instinct, and Man by Eeason, is contrary 
to the implied rule, that a Being is acting instinctively when 
impelled blindly towards some end which the Agent does not 



280 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

aira at or perceive ; and on the other hand, that it is acting 
rationally, when acting with a view to, and for the sake of, 
some end which it does perceive. For, as some things felt 
and done by Man are allowed to be purely instinctive — as 
hunger and thirst, for instance, are evidently instincts — so 
many things done by brutes, at least by the higher descrip- 
tion of brutes, would be, if done by man, regarded as result- 
ing from the exercise of Reason. 

In many instances we know this is not the case. A man 
builds a house from Reason — a bird builds a nest from 
Instinct ; and no one would say that the bird, in this acted 
from Reason. But in other instances, Man not only does the 
same things as the brutes, but does them from the same kind 
of impulse, which should be called instinctive, whether in 
man or brute. And again, several things are done by 
brutes, which are evidently not instinctive, but, to all appear- 
ance, no less rational than human acts : being not only the 
same actions, but done from the same impulse. The domes- 
tic animals exhibit many instances of this. There is an in- 
cident upon record, and there seems no ground for doubting 
it, of a dog, which being left on the bank of a river by his 
master who had gone up the river in a boat, attempted to 
join him. He plunged into the water, but not making al- 
lowance for the strength of the stream, which carried him 
considerably below the boat, he could not beat up against it. 
He landed, and made allowance for the current of the river, 
by leaping in at a place higher up. The combined action of 
the stream and his swimming, carried him in an oblique di- 
rection, and he thus reached the boat. I do not vouch for 
the accuracy of this anecdote ; but I see no grounds for dis- 
believing it, as it is of a piece with many other recorded 
instjinces. 

There is another instance of this nature, which did come 



MISCELLANEOUS APOrHTHEGMS, 281 

Dnder my own observation, in whicli the actor was a cat — 
a species of animal generally considered very inferior in 
sagacity to a dog. This cat was known, not merely once or 
twice, but habitually, to ring the parlour-bell whenever it 
wished the door to be opened. Some alarm was excited on 
the first occasion that it turned bell-ringer. The family had 
retired to rest, and in the middle of the night the parlour- 
bell was rung violently : the sleepers were startled from their 
repose, and proceeded down stairs, with pokers and tongs, to 
intercept, as they thought, the predatory movements of some 
burglar ; but they were agreeably surprised to discover that 
the bell had been rung by Pussy, who frequently repeated 
the act whenever she wanted to get out of the parlour. 

Here are two clear cases of acts done by a cat and dog, 
which, if done by a man, would be called reason. Every 
one would admit that the actions were rational — not, to be 
sure, proceeding from a very high exertion of intellect : but 
the dog, at least, rationally jumped into the stream at a 
distance higher up from the boat into which he wished to get, 
because, having made the trial, and failed, he apparently 
judged from the failure of the first attempt, that his course 
was to go up the stream, make allowance for its strength, and 
thus gain the boat ; he found that it would then carry him to 
it instead of from it; and the cat pulled the parlour-bell, 
because she had observed, that when it was rung by the family, 
the servant opened the door. 

It appears, then, that we can neither deny Reason univer- 
sally and altogether to brutes, nor Instinct to Man ; but that 
each possesses a share of both, though in very different 
proportions. And yet the difference between man and brute, 
in respect of intelligence, appears plainly to be not a differ- 
ence in mere degree but in kind. An intelligent brute is not 
like a stupid man. The intelligence and sagacity shown by 
24* 



282 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

the elephant, monkey, and dog, are something very different 
from the lowest and most stupid of human beings. 

In fact, in the most striking instances in which brutes 
display reason, all the intellectual operation seems to con- 
sist in the combination of means to an end. The dog who 
SAvam from a higher part of the river to reach the boat ; the 
cat who rang the bell to call the servant ; these, and many 
other similar instances of sagacity, appear to consist but in 
this. 

But the great difference between Man and the higher 
brutes appears to me to consist in the power of using SIGNS 
— arbitrary signs — and employing language as an instrument 
of thought. We are accustomed to speak of language as 
useful to man, to communicate his thoughts. I consider this as 
only one of the uses of language. That use of language 
which, though commonly overlooked, is the most characteris- 
tic of Man, is an instrument of thought. Man is not the 
only animal that can make use of language to express what 
is passing within his mind, and that can understand, more or 
less, what is so expressed by another. Some brutes can be 
taught to utter, and many others, to understand, more or less 
imperfectly, sounds expressive of certain emotions. Every 
one knows that the dog understands the general drift of ex- 
pressions used ; and parrots can be taught not only to 
pronounce words, but to pronounce them with some con- 
sciousness of the general meaning of what they utter. They- 
call for food ; when displeased, scold ; and use expressions 
in reference to particular persons which they have heard 
applied to them. Almost every animal which is capable of 
being tamed, can, in some degree, use language as an indica- 
tion of what passes within. But no animal has the use of 
language as an "instrument of thought." Man makes use 
of GENERAL SIGNS in the application of his poAver of Abstrac- 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 288 

tion, by which he is enabled to reason ; and the use of arbi- 
trary general signs, what logicians call '■^common terms,'" 
with a facility of thus using Abstraction at pleasure, is a 
characteristic of Man. 

The implanting and modification of Instinct in animals, in 
consequence of the education received by many generations 
of their predecessors, is a point well worthy of inquiry. 
The most widely diffused of all implanted and modified 
Instincts is that of Wildness or Tameness. Whether the 
original Instinct of brutes was to be afraid of man, or familiar 
with him, I will not undertake to say. My own belief is 
that it is the fear of man that is the implanted instinct. 
But at any rate, it is plain that either the one or the other — 
wildness or tameness — must be implanted, and not an 
original, Instinct. All voyagers agree, that when they have 
gone into a country, which had not apparently been visited 
by man, neither bird nor beast exhibited fear. The birds 
perched familiarly upon their guns, or stood still to be 
knocked on the head. After the country had been for some 
time frequented, not only individual animals become afraid 
of man, but their offspring inherit that fear by Instinct. 

There are many cases in which it cannot be ascertained 
towards what the immediate impulses of animals tend. We 
do not know through the medium of what organs birds are 
induced to put food into the mouths of their young. We see 
a pair of birds searching all day long for food ; and, in many 
instances, the food they seek is such as they do not feed on 
themselves-^-for example, granivorous birds hunt after cater- 
pillars for their young : in other cases they seek for food 
which their own appetite incites them to eat ; but they 
treasure it for their young, and are impelled by an instinctive 
appetite to put it into its mouth when opened. And this 



284 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

instinct is not peculiar to birds. The mammalia partake of 
it ; for we find wolves, dogs, and other carnivorous animals 
bringing home meat, and leaving it before their young ones. 
If a bitch or wolf has pups, and cannot bring food to them 
otherwise than by first swallowing it, she swallows it, and 
then disgorges it ; for the animal has the power of evacuating 
its stomach at pleasure. Pigeons invariably swallow their 
food before they give it to their young. — Take the case of 
migratory birds — even those which have been caged : when 
a particular season arrives, they desire to fiy in a certain 
direction ; but what leads them in that direction cannot be 
understood. That direction is pointed out to them by God ; 
but how pointed out is only known to Him. And how delight- 
ful to a pious mind is it to contemplate every proof of the 
wisdom, goodness, and power of God — to mark everywhere 
the work of that same Creator's hand who has filled the 
universe with the monuments of His wisdom !* 

There is a remarkable phenomenon connected with insect 
life which has often occurred to my mind while meditating on 
the subject of preparedness for a future state, as presenting 
a curious analogy. 

Most persons know that every hutterfiy (the Greek name 
for which, it is remarkable, is the same that signifies also the 
8oul, — Psyche) comes from a grub or caterpillar ; in the 
language of naturalists called a larva. The last name (which 
signifies literally a mash) was introduced by Linnaeus, because 
the caterpillar is a kind of outward covering, or disguise, of 
the future butterfly within. For, it has been ascertained by 
curious microscopic examination, that a distinct butterfly, 

,* For proceedings of rational agents analogous to Instinct, see page 
161. 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 285 

only undeveloped and not full-grown, is contained withiin the 
body of the caterpillar ; that this latter has its own organs 
of digestion, respiration, &c., suitable to its larva-life, quite 
distinct from, and indeiDondent of, the future butterfly which 
it encloses. When the projaer period arrives, and the life of 
the insect, in this its first stage, is to close, it becomes what 
is called a Pupa, enclosed in a Chrysalis or Cocoon (often 
composed of silk ; as is that of the silkworm which supplies 
us that important article), and lies torpid for a time Avithin 
this natural coffin, from which it issues, at the proper period, 
as a perfect butterfly. 

But sometimes this process is marred. There is a numer- 
ous tribe of insects well known to naturalists, called Ichneu- 
mon-flies ; which in their larva-state are parasitical ; that is, 
inhabit, and feed on, other larv«. The Ichneumon-fly, being 
provided with a long sharp sting, which is in fact an ovipositor 
(egg-layer), pierces with this the body of a caterpillar in 
several places, and deposits her eggs which are there hatched, 
and feed, as grubs (larvse) on the inward parts of their victim. 
— A most wonderful circumstance connected with this process 
is, that a caterpillar which has been thus attacked goes on 
feeding and apparently thriving quite as well during the 
whole of its larva-life, as those that have escaped. For, by 
a wonderful provision of instinct, the ichneumon-grubs within 
do not injure any of the organs of the larva, but feed only 
on the future butterly enclosed within it. And consequently, 
it is hardly possible to distinguish a caterpillar which has 
these enemies within it from those that are untouched. — But * 
vt'hen the period arrives for the close of the larva-life, the 
difierence appears. You may often observe the common 
cabbage-caterpillars retiring, to undergo their change, into 
some sheltered spot — such as the walls of a summer-house ; 
and some of them — those that have escaped the parasites — 



286 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

assuming the pupa-state, from which they emerge butterflies. 
Of the unfortunate caterpillar that has been preyed upon, 
nothing remains but an empty skin. The hidden butterfly 
has been secretly consumed. Now is there not something 
analogous to this wonderful phenomenon in the condition of 
some of our race : — may not a man have a kind of secret 
enemy within his own bosom, destroying his Soul, — Psyche, 
— though without interfering with his well-being during tlie 
present stage of his existence ; and whose presence may 
never be detected till the time arrives when the last great 
change should take place? — Every man should reflect 
whether this may not be his case ; remembering that it is in 
his power now, through the help that is promised, to detect 
and destroy these secret but deadly enemies within him ! 

The great difficulty is, not to make men believe in a future 
state of rewards and punishments, but to make them seriously 
and earnestly think about it : and this will be the hardest 
task in the case of those whose serious thoughts are taken 
up with worldly pursuits. There is more hope of converting 
a sensualist than an avaricious, or ambitious, calculating, 
worldly man. Accordingly, during the ministry of our Lord 
such men rejected Him whilst the publicans and sinners 
heard Him gladly. The voluptuary does very often heartily 
despise the whole world, and everything in it, his own pur- 
suits included. One reason, indeed, for this may be, that 
he has tried the value of his own objects : whereas, those 
who are pursuing distant objects, are always likely to over- 
rate them, from the dazzling colours in which hope decks 
them out. 

'Many a man, who may admit it to be impossible to serve 
God and Mammon, at one and the same time, yet wishes to 

i 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 287 

serve Mammon and God ; first the one, as long as he is able; 
and then, the other. 

There occurs in a late number of a leading Periodical a 
remark, which one may find also in the mouths of many, and 
in the minds of very many more ; that the great diversity of 
religious opinions j^revailing in the world, and the absence 
of all superhuman provision against them, is a proof that it 
is the loill of the Almighty that such should be the case ; — 
that men were designed to hold all diversities of religious 
belief. Now, the inference which will naturally be drawn, 
on further reflection, from this is, that it is no matter 
whether we hold truth or falsehood ; and next, that there is 
no truth at all in any religion. 

But this is not all. The same reasoning would go to prove 
that since there is no infallible and universally-accessible 
guide in morals, and men greatly difier in their judgments 
of what is morally right and wrong, hence we are to infer 
that God did not design men to agree on this point neither, 
and that it matters not whether we act on right or wrong 
principles ; and, in short, that there is no such thing as right 
and wrong; but only what each man thinks. The two 
opposite errors (as Ave think them) from the sarne source, are, 
"If God wills all men to believe, and to act rightly, He 
must have given us an infallible and accessible guide for 
belief and practice. (1.) But he does so will; therefore, 
there is such a guide : and (2.) He has not given us any 
such guide : therefore. He does not will all men to believe 
and act rightly." 

Now this is to confound the two senses of WILL, as dis- 
tinguished in the concluding paragraph of the 17th Article 
of the Church of England. In a certain sense, the most 
absurd errors, and the most heinous crimes may be said to 



288 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

be according to the Divine Will ; since God does not inter- 
pose His omnipotence to prevent them. But " in our doings" 
says that Article, " that will of God is to be followed which 
we have exijressly declared in Holy Writ." 

Men only delude themselves by giving way to that craving 
after infallibility, which is part of our corrupt nature. — For 
it is plainly not God's intention to exempt us from all danger 
of mistake, and all labour of enquiry, and the responsibility 
of exercising our own judgments, whether good or bad, in 
matters of the greatest importance. 

In all the most important affairs of this life, we are obliged 
to act upon mere probabilities, and sometimes, very weak 
probabilities. With respect to this life, as well as the life to 
come, our highest interests require us to act continually with 
regard to the future. Yet, we have no infallible guidance 
at all with respect to what will happen to-morrow. We are 
left to calculate, as we best can, what is most likely ; and 
consider carefully Avhat is, under all the circumstances, the 
most prudent course for us to take. Nay, it is very remark- 
able that our knowledge is much more full and complete of 
things which do not directly concern us, than of those which 
do. We can foretell the motions of the heavenly bodies for 
centuries to come ; but, as to things at our own doors, we 
"know not what a day may bring forth." The things 
within our foreHight and certain knowledge are out of our 
power ; and the things within our power are out of our 
foresight. 

It has been objected to Prayer that it is unnecessary, 
because God must know our wants, whether we supplicate 
Hjm or not. — True ; He knows our wants, but not our 
humble supplications to Him for aid, unless we make such 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 289 

supplications. Noav, it is to our prayers, not to our wants, 
that His gifts are promised. He does not say " Need, and 
ye shall have; want, and ye shall find;" but, '■'^ Ash, and ye 
shall have ; seek, and ye shall find." 

A well-framed Liturgy in constant use, is not only a help 
to public worship, but a standing monitor, both to the 
Minister and his Congregation ; the Minister, when he is 
reading it, testifying with his own mouth, against the errors, 
if such there be, of his own preaching ; and the Congregation 
being warned either to supply what is wanting, or to reject 
what is faulty, or to inquire respecting what is doubtful. 

That Infidelity is daily spreading, is a complaint one hears 
on all sides. It behoves every good Christian to look 
narrowly for the spring of that bitter stream which is well- 
ing fast, though often silently, all around us. Now, any one 
who considers the tendency of much of the teaching abroad 
in the present day to create and foster, irreligion, will see 
rather less reason to wonder at the amount of it that now 
exists, than ground for alarming apprehensions of its in- 
crease. — For, let a man be but once convinced — 1st, that 
Christianity cannot stand the test of enquiry ; — 2ndly, that 
he has no ground for certainty as to the real belief of those 
who teach it ; — 3rdly, that Scripture need not be studied ; — 
4thly, that he had better withdraw his thoughts as much as 
possible from the subject, since otherwise he could not but 
exercise that private judgment which is forbidden; — and 
5thly, that Christianity is mainly a system of outward ordi- 
nances, — let him but adopt all these notions, and what is 
there to stand between him and Infidelity, or Indifierentism ? 

When men talk of the necessity of accommodating the re- 
ligion preached by the Apostles to the tastes and manners 

25 



290 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

of men, tliey forget that the great aim of Christianity is to 
regenerate Man's Nature. Christianity does not (as the law 
of Moses did) jserwzY things on account of the "hardness" 
of men's hearts ; because it brings the promise of the 
Spirit, which is given to change our hearts, and make us 
"new creatures." Accordingly, though the Pagans in Italy 
were, in Paul's time, fond of altars and sacrifices, images, 
shows, and gaudy processions, that Apostle never thought 
of accommodating the simple worship of the Church to their 
tastes ; and the Greeks at Corinth were quite as fond as the 
modern schoolmen of subtle and abstruse enquiries. Paul 
was so far from indulging them therein, that, for that very 
reason, he determined to "know nothing among them, but 
Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." 

The liberality of some men, is but indifference clad in the 
garb of candour. 

Tenderness towards the faulty, is charity ; tenderness 
towards the fault, is indifierence about right and wrong. 

If our religion is not true, we are bound to change it ; if 
it is true, we are bound to propagate it. 

The same kinds of error which at first were against the 
Christian religion, found their way into it afterwards, in cor- 
responding corruptions of it. 

It has been said that in former times, and for those times, 
Monasteries were commendable institutions. But those who 
say this, when contrasting the learning, peace, and piety of 
the Monasteries with the ignorance and irreligion and per- 
petual wars of "the Middle Ages," forget that it was the 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 291 

very system of whicli these were a part, whicli made the 
world so dark and unquiet ; and then, like the ivy, which has 
reduced a fine building to a shattered ruin, they held 
together the fragments of that ruin. 

Nothing is really harmless that is mistaken for a virtue. 
In all pursuits, but most of all in the great one of religion, 
to think that we are advancing when we are not, is a positive 
evil. 

Too religious, in the proper sense of the word, we cannot 
be. We cannot have the religious sentiments and principles 
too strong, or too deeply fixed, if only they have a right 
object. We cannot love God too warmly — or honour Him 
too highly — or strive to serve Him too earnestly — or trust 
Him too implicitly ; because our duty is " to love Him with 
all our heart, and all our soul, and all our mind, and all our 
strength." But too religious, in another sense, we may, and 
are very apt to be — that is, we are very apt to make for our- 
selves too many objects of religious feeling. 

The difierence between religious knowledge, properly so 
called, and what may be more properly styled theological 
philosophy, may be thus illustrated. — The printed tables in 
our almanacks, showing the times of the sun's rising and 
setting at each period of the year — the appearances of the 
moon — the times of eclipses — the variations of the tides in 
difierent places, and the like, supply to plain unlearned men 
that needful information upon many points of daily practical 
use which they can understand ; whereas, the explanations 
which modern discoveries in natural philosophy have estab- 
lished of most of those points, would be wholly unintelligible 
to them. — It is not the less possible-, nor the less useful, for 



292 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

any one to know the times when the sun gives light to this 
earth, even though he should not know whether it is the sun 
that moves, or the earth. 

Now, it is just such practical knowledge as this that the 
Scriptures give us of the Christian Dispensation. — They 
afford practical directions, but no theory. But there is this 
important difference between the two cases — the human 
faculties could, and at length did (though it is beyond the 
great mass of mankind) discover the true theory of the ap- 
pearances and motions of the heavenly bodies. In matters 
pertaining to divine revelation, on the contrary, though there 
must actually be a true theory (since there must he reasons, 
and those known to God Himself, even if hidden from every 
creature, why He proceeded in this way, rather than in that), 
this theory never can be known to us ; because the whole 
subject is so far above the human powers, that we must have 
remained, but for revelation, in the darkest ignorance con- 
cerning it. Many curious and valuable truths has the world 
discovered by philosophy (or, as our translators express it, 
"wisdom"); but "the world" (says Paul,) "by wisdom 
knew not Giod ;" of which assertion, the writings of the 
ancient heathen philosophers now extant, afford sufficient 
proof. 

When the Sacred Writers speak with commendation of 
"knowing God," they always mean such a knowledge as is 
attended with the practical effects of fearing, loving and 
obeying Him. " The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom ; and 
to depart from evil, that is understanding" (Job. xxviii. 28). 
"He judged the cause of the poor and needy, then it was 
well with him : was not this to know Me ? saith the Lord" 
(Jer. xxii. 16). " He that loveth is born of God, and knoweth 
God : he that loveth not liath not kno'wn Gfod" (1 John iv. 7). 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 293 

The Gospel substitutes for precise rules sublime principles ; 
thus leaving the Christian to be "a law unto himself." 

All lawgivers forbid us to steal our neighbour's goods ; but 
it is only the Divine Law-Giver who looks, not merely on 
the outward appearance, but looks upon the heart, that can 
effectually forbid us to covet them. 

All Gaming, since it implies a desire to profit at the 
expense of another, involves a breach of the tenth Command- 
ment. 

The King, who proposed a reward to the man who should 
invent a new pleasure, would have deserved well of the world, 
if he had stipulated that it should be innocent. 

Much of the declamation, by which popular assemblies are 
often misled, against what is called, without any distinct 
meaning, the "doctrine of expediency," (as if the "right" 
and the " expedient" were in opposition) might be silenced 
by asking the simple question, " Do you then admit that the 
course you recommend is ^expedient ?" 

To avoid the two opposite evils, — the liability to sudden 
and violent changes, and the adherence to established usage, 
when inconvenient or mischievous, — to give the requisite 
stability to governments and other institutions without 
shutting the door against improvement, this is a problem 
which both ancient and modern legislators have not well 
succeeded in solving. Some, like the ancient Medes and 
Persians, and like Lycurgus, have attempted to prohibit all 
change ; but those who constantly appeal to the wisdom of 
their ancestors, as a sufficient reason for perpetuating every- 
25* 



294 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

thing these have established, forget two things ; first, that 
they cannot hope for ever to persuade all successive genera- 
tions of men, that there was once one generation of such 
infallible wisdom as to be entitled to dictate to all their de- 
scendants for ever, so as to make the earth, in fact, the 
possession, not of the living but of the dead ; and, secondly, 
that, even supposing our ancestors gifted with such infalli- 
bility, many cases must arise in which it may be reasonably 
doubted whether they themselves would not have advocated, 
if living, changes called for by altered circumstances ; even 
as our own forefathers, who denoted the southern quarter 
from meridies (noon), would not have been so foolish as to 
retain that language had they come to live in this hemisphere, 
where the sun at noon is in the north. 

Nature does not give the same degree of strength to the 
footstalks of the leaves of a tree, — destined as these are, to 
be shed every year, — and to the roots, which are designed 
to hold the trunk fast in the ground — If she did, either the 
one would be far too strong, or the other far too weak, or 
both of these inconveniences might take place at once ; yet 
this is the error committed by almost all governments. The 
same machinery is provided to facilitate or to impede every 
change alike, in great or in small matters ; the same mode 
is prescribed for the maintaining, or abrogating, or intro- 
ducing of every law and every institution alike. In Great 
Britain, for instance, an Act for regulating the manufacture 
of soap, or an A ct which should introduce a complete change 
into the Constitution — which should take away or restore the 
liberties of half the nation, — must go through exactly the 
same forms, and be passed or rejected by the same authorities 
under the same regulations : in short, in this respect, the 
Government is like a tree whose leaf-stalks and main roots, 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 295 

have neither more nor less toughness and stoutness the one 
than the other. 

A political prediction publicly uttered will often have had, 
or be supposed to have had, a great share in bringing about 
its own fulfilment. He who gives out, for instance, that the 
people will certainly be dissatisfied with such and such a law, 
is, in this, doing his utmost to mahe them dissatisfied. And 
this being the case in all unfavourable, as well as favourable, 
predictions, some men lose their deserved credit for political 
sagacity, through their fear of contributing to produce the 
evils they apprehend ; while others, again, contribute to evil 
results by their incapacity to keep their anticipations locked 
up in their own bosoms, and by their dread of not obtaining 
deserved credit. It would be desirable to provide for such 
men a relief like that which the servant of King Midas 
found, due care, however, being taken that there should be 
no whispering reeds to divulge it. 

To love both Power and Liberty is not very consistent. 

In forming a judgment of any one's character, the first 
thing to be looked at, is to see whether he have any percep- 
tible, ruling passion ; for it is evident that, though the whole 
of a man's character does not depend upon it, since it may 
be variously modified by other passions, and by principle, 
yet it must ever be an important feature. A man might 
give a very full detail of the business and transactions of 
each separate department of our government, and yet convey 
but a faint idea of our Constitution, compared with one who 
should in a few lines point out the p^upiov of it, and the checks 
upon that. So also, it is not enough to be able to enumerate 
a man's good and bad qualities, without' adverting to his 



296 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

ruling passion. It is a point of some nicety, since we are 
not to be led altogether by a man's conduct : for the same 
conduct is not only consistent with, but may spring from, 
different passions; nor by his professions, nor what his 
reason assents to ; yet each of these, though it may not be 
precisely conformable to his ruling passion, will generally 
be, in some measure, tinged by it. Perhaps, one of the best 
criterions (when a man can, as in the case of himself, obtain 
knowledge of it) is his castles-in-the air. A reverie is, on 
the one hand, not regulated by the corrections of sober 
reason, and yet, on the other hand, is not usually influenced 
by the sudden interruption of those casual passions, which, 
in practice, so often interrupt a man's general plan of life ; 
it is in a reverie, therefore, that the ruling passion bears the 
most complete sway. Some men's day-dreams terminate (for 
that is the main point) in glory; some, in power; some in 
beneficence ; some stop short at wealth ; some in comfort, 
and tranquil retirement. This last case seems to bear 
reference to a sort of negative ruling passion, which is by 
no means uncommon. It is generally easier, and better, to 
direct and modify the ruling passion, than to extirpate it; 
and there is scarce any that may not be engaged on the 
side of virtue: Laudis amove times? What is the praise 
of men compared with the praise of God? Is a man 
eager for knowledge ? Heaven must be set before him., as 
the place where we shall "see face to face" and "know even 
as we are known" — Is he ambitious ? Such an one may be 
made to be eager to rise to a more exalted state of existence 

Is his ruling passion philanthropy ? Heaven presents 

itself as a place where multitudes will be happy around him ; 
and, especially, where the distressing and perplexing appear- 
ance of evil will be explained, and the Divine Benevolence 
clearly made manifest. 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 297 

Abstain from the amusements, which are the most congenial 
to your peculiar, innate disposition, or your peculiar, profes- 
sional pursuits. A man should never do that in jest, which, 
he may be suspected of doing in earnest. 

There is not so much pleasure in gaining, as in the act of 
gaining. — If all our wishes were gratified, most of our 
pleasures would be destroyed. 

No flattery — to use the word in the sense of undue praise 
merely — has such influence as the daily droppings of domestic 
flattery. Laudari a laudato viro, is what every one would 
prize most ; but other praises may make up in tale what they 
want in weight. 

Attachment to Relations, is the earliest and the latest. 

It is a fact, and a very curious one, that many people find 
they can best attend to any serious matter, when they are 
occupied with something else, that requires a little, and but 
a little, attention ; such as, working with the needle (which, 
by the bye, gives the woman a great advantage over men), 
cutting open paper leaves, or for want of some such employ- 
ment fiddling any how with the fingers (which most are prone 
to when earnestly engaged). Now, as the best philosophers 
are agreed, that the mind cannot actually attend to more 
than one thing at a time, but when it so appears, is, in 
reality, shifting with prodigious rapidity, backwards and 
forwards from one to the other, it seems strange, that atten- 
tion to one train of ideas should be aided by this continual, 
though unperceived, distraction to another. The truth is, I 
conceive, that it is next to impossible to keep the mind closely 
fixed to any one train of thought, except for a very short 



298 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

time ; and that, when we suppose this to be the case, there 
are, in reality, continual little digressions ; which frequently 
do not (often do) leave a trace on the memory ; which are 
excited, either by some casual association with one of the 
ideas of the train, or by bodily sensations, and from which, 
the attention is continually returning to its former course. 
If any one first attends to any subject, as he thinks, exclu- 
sively, and afterwards beginning to cut open paper-leaves, 
finds that he attends no worse than before, it seems quite 
evident that he did not before attend more exclusively than 
after ; and consequently that he had then, though he knew 
it not, his attention as much drawn oflf by extraneous objects. 
Taking it then for granted, that we seldom, or never, can 
prevent entirely those occasional wanderings of attention, 
and never can vfholly confine our thoughts to the main 
object, the best way, therefore, must be to present to them 
some subordinate object, which shall be just interesting 
enough to withhold our attention from those objects, which 
our roving senses are perpetually apt to present to us, and 
yet not enough to draw off much of our attention (such as 
needlework, to one who is familiar with it, but not to a child 
who is just learning it) : and this subordinate object will, not 
only, draw off our attention from the surrounding objects of 
sense, but will aso check those wandering thoughts which 
are suggested by the principal train of ideas ; for being 
associated with this principal train, it will form a sort of topical 
memory, and will thus perpetually recall us to what we are 
about. Hence the great advantage of some such employ- 
ment as needlework, turning, &c. Hence, too, though dt is 
reckoned uncivil, when another is reading or speaking to 
you, to look out of the window, or play with a dog, as 
implying inattention, yet we should be aware, that it does 
not necessarily imply any such thing. Hence, too, the 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 299 

chief advantage of meditating on paper ; the act of writing 
withholds the attention ; and the words written are more 
even than the above topical kind of memory, for thej present 
to you the past part of the trains, first, in regular order ; 
secondly, connected with them, not by an extemporaneous 
association, as above, but by an established and habitual 
one. 

In Affliction, Labour and Duty have been found to have a 
soothing effect, when an attempt at seeking amusement 
would excite loathing. 

If you wish to show how well you would undergo trials 
from which you are exempt, show it by your way of sustain- 
ing those to which you are subjected. 

Gay Spirits are always spoken of as a sign of happiness, 
though every one knows to the contrary. A cockchafer is 
never so lively, as when a pin is stuck through his tail ; and 
a hot floor makes Bruin dance. 

Happiness is no laughing matter. 

Disgust, contempt, and laughter are nearly akin ; he who 
enjoys nothing and values nothing, will laugh at everything. 

Of all secondary motives, there are, certainly, none that 
have more influence, on faith, and feeling, and practice, than 
the example and sympathy of others. Where indeed is the 
man, who can presume to say, that his faith would be equally 
firm, if no one held it beside himself? or that his feelings 
and his conduct would be the same, if he found that, in both, 
he stood perfectly single?. 



300 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

To take the same steps with another, in widely diflFerent 
circumstances, is to depart from, not to follow, his example. 

It may he said, almost without qualification, that Wisdom 
consists in the ready and accurate perception of analogies. 
Without the former quality, knowledge of the past is unin- 
structive ; without the latter, it is deceptive. 

There is a kind of man, that may he called the mirror of 
a wise man ; which gives a perfect representation, only left- 
handed. He knows that a wise man is neither too hasty nor 
too slow — too trustful nor too distrustful — keeps the mean 
hetween timidity and rashness, &c. ; and so he resolves to 
have just enough, and not too much, of each quality ; — only 
he takes the wrong occasions for each ; cautious, where he 
ought to he hold, and daring, where he ought to he cautious ; 
distrusting those Avorthy of confidence, and trusting those 
who are not ; dilatory, where promptitude is called for, and 
hasty, where he should take time ; ohstinate, where conces- 
sion would he right, and yielding, where firmness is needed ; 
in short, acting like Hans with Grettel, who stuck a knife in 
his sleeve, hecause that was the proper place for the needle ; 
and put a kid in his pocket, hecause that was the place for 
a knife, &c. Such is the left-handed representation of a 
wise man. 

A man who, in conjunction with other qualities, is re- 
marked for a simple and natural way of speaking and acting, 
and whose opinions and conduct are marked hy independence 
and originality, will, perhaps, be admired and imitated hy 
others, who forget that an imitation of one who is no imita- 
tor, must, in one most important point, he quite unlike ; and 
that one who does not think for himself, must difi"er greatly 
from one who does. 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 301 

People in general judge of every separate action as good 
or bad, and seem to have a very imperfect idea of character. 
Virtuous or vicious are terms not strictly applicable to any 
action, but to the agent, and his disposition and design, of 
•which the acts are only the indicative. Thus, if a man be 
found guilty of a cool and deliberate falsehood, or of a de- 
signed malicious misrepresentation, and equivocation (which 
is a lie guarded), his good actions might, in other respects, 
be beneficial ; but they no more deserve the name of virtuous, 
than the services of rooks in ridding the field of grubs, or of 
vultures in draining away carrion. 

A lobster (and the same may be seen in a prawn) always 
faces you, as if ready to maintain his post, and do battle ; 
but when you approach, he gives a flap Avith his tail, and flies 
back two or three feet ; and so on, again and again ; always 
showing his assailants a bold front, and always retreating. — 
I have met with many such men. 

There are snakes as venomous as the rattle-snake, only 
they have no warning rattle. 

There are some rare instances, and as curious as rare, of 
men who, from their youth up, have lost so little, and gained 
so little, that at any age, they are neither less nor more than 
clever boys, with all the mental and bodily elasticity of a 
lively youth, and with all the mental immaturity and un- 
steadiness of thought likewise. Their's is a perpetual 
spring-time, which keeps everything fresh and green, and 
ripens nothing. 

"A knave is one knave, but a fool is many," A weak 
man, in a place of authority, will often do more mischief 
26 



302 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

than a bad man. For an intelligent, but dishonest man, will 
do only as much hurt as serves his own purpose ; but a weak 
man is likely to be made the tool of several dishonest men. 
A lion only kills as many as will supply him with food ; but 
a horse, if ridden by several warlike horsemen, may prove 
the death of more than ten lions would kill. 

To attempt to convince some men by even the strongest 
reasons and most cogent arguments, would be like King Lear 
putting a letter before a man without eyes, and saying, " Mark 
but the penning of it ;" to which he answers, " Were all the 
letters suns, I could not see one." 

Some persons have an excessive dread of being misled by 
the eloquence of another. A man has been known to shun 
the acquaintance of another, of whom he knew no harm, 
solely from his dread of him as a man who, he imagined, 
"could prove anything." Men of a low tone of morality, 
judging from themselves, take for granted, that whoever 
" has a giant's strength will not scruple to use it like a 
giant." 

It seems to be commonly taken for granted, that whenever 
the feelings are excited they are, of course, over-excited. 
Now, so far is this from being true — s© far is it from being 
the fact — that men are universally, or even generally, in 
danger of being misled in conduct by an excess of feeling, 
that the reverse is, at least, as often the case. The more 
generous feeling, such as Compassion, Gratitude, Devotion, 
nay, even rational and rightly-directed Self-Love, Hope, and 
Fear, are oftener defective than excessive : and that, even in 
the estimation of the parties themselves, if they are well- 
principled, judicious, and candid, men. Do the feelings of 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 303 

Bucli a man, wben contemplating, for instance, the doctrines 
and tlie promises of the Christian Religion, usually come up 
to the standard which he himself thinks reasonable ? And 
not only in the case of Religion, but in many others also, a 
man will often wonder at, and be rather ashamed of, the 
coldness and languor of his own feelings, compared with 
what the occasion calls for : and even make efforts to rouse 
in himself such emotions as he is conscious his reason would 
approve. But the feelings, propensities, and sentiments of 
our nature, are not, like the Intellectual Faculties, under the 
direct control of Volition. The distinction is much the 
same as between the voluntary, and the involuntary, actions 
of different parts of the body. One may, by a deliberate 
act of the Will, set himself to calculate, — to reason, — to 
recall historical facts, &c., just as he does to move any of his 
limbs : on the other hand, a Volition to hope or fear, to love 
or hate, to feel devotion or pity, and the like, is as ineffectual 
as to will that the pulsations of the heart, or the secre- 
tions of the liver, should be altered. Good sense suggests, in 
each case, an analogous remedy. It is in vain to form a 
Will to quicken or lower the circulation ; but we may, by a 
voluntary act, swallow a medicine which will have that effect ; 
and so also, though we cannot, by a direct act of volition, 
excite or allay any Sentiment or Emotion, we may, by a 
voluntary act, fill the understanding with such thoughts as 
shall operate on the Feelings. Such being the state of the 
case, why is it that the idea of unfair artifice should be so 
commonly associated, not only with Rhetoric in general, but 
most especially with that part of it known as the address to 
the Feelings or Active Principles of our nature, and usually 
stigmatized as "An Appeal to the Passions instead of the 
Reason?" — though no other artifice is necessarily employed 
by the Orator than a man of sense makes use of towards 



304 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

himself. Many different circumstances combine to produce 
this effect. In the first place, the intellectual powers being, 
as has been said, under the immediate control of the Will, 
■which the Feelings, Sentiments, &c., are not, an address to 
the Understanding is consequently from the nature of the 
case, direct ; to the Feelings, indirect. The conclusion you 
wish to draw, you may state plainly, as such ; and avow your 
intention of producing reasons which shall effect a conviction 
of that conclusion : you may even entreat the hearer's steady 
attention to the point to be proved, and to the process of 
argument by which it is to be established. But this, for the 
reasons above mentioned, is widely different from the process 
by which we operate on the Feelings. No passion, sentiment, 
or emotion, is excited by thinking about it, and attention to 
it ; but by thinking about, and attending to, such objects as 
are calculated to awaken it. Hence it is, that the more 
oblique and indirect process, which takes place when we are 
addressing ourselves to this part of the human mind, is 
apt to suggest the idea of trick and artifice ; although it is, 
as I have said, just such as a wise man practises towards 
himself. 

When, however, it is said, that a good and wise man often 
has to act the part of an orator towards himself, in respect 
of that very point — the excitement of the Feelings — it 
must not be forgotten that there is danger of a man's being 
misled by his own ingenuity — of exercising on himself, 
when under the influence of some passion, a most pernicious 
oratorical power, by pleading the cause, as it were, before 
himself, of that passion. And the man of superior ingenuity 
and eloquence, will do this more skilfully than an ordinary 
man, and will thence be likely to be the more effectually 
self-deceived : for though he may be superior to the other 
in judgment, as well as in ingenuity, it is to be remembered 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 305 

that, while his judgment is likely to be, in his own cause, 
biassed and partially blinded, his ingenuity is called forth to 
the utmost ; and though it requires greater skill to mislead 
him than an ordinary man, he himself possesses that superior 
skill. It is no feeble blow that will destroy a giant ; but if 
a giant resolve to kill him'self, it is a giant that deals the 
blow. 

The like takes place if it be anger, selfish cupidity, unjust 
partiality in favour of a relative or friend, party-spirit, or 
any other passion, that may be operating. For, universally, 
men are but too apt to take more pains in justifying their 
propensities than it would cost to control them ; and a man 
of superior powers will often be, in this way, entrapped by 
his own ingenuity, like a spider entangled in the web she has 
herself spun. There is no one whom he is likely so much, 
and so hurtfully, to mislead as himself, if he be not sedu- 
lously on his guard against this self-deceit. 

If a man, who feels himself capable of generous and ex- 
alted conduct (I do not mean, feels that he shall always act 
thus, — for who dares promise himself this ? — but who feels 
that it is not beyond his conception, or unnatural to him), 
measures others by his own standard, he must be first disap- 
pointed, and then dissatisfied, with almost all the world ; and 
if he then comes to measure himself by their standard, and 
to be content with coming up to it, it is evident he will act 
below what he is capable of, and what is consequently ex- 
pected of him; for every man shall be judged "according 
to that he hath, and not according to that he hath not." 
His only way, then, is to fancy himself the only generous 
being in the world. I say to fancy, because there is no 
reason he should not believe in the abstract, that there are 
others ; but he should never expect it, in any one instance, 
26* 



306 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

till it has been most copiously and clearly proved by ex- 
perience. It may be objected that this will make him think 
over-highly of himself, and " despise others." I deny both — 
for he is not to think his conduct better than others, only 
his capabilities ; and thus, feeling that more is required of 
him, as being placed in a higher walk of duty, he will even 
be the less satisfied with his conformity to so lofty a standard. 
But, though his frequent failures will humble him, yet, as a 
fair and due sense of dignity, which arises from a conscious- 
ness of superior station, is not only right, but needful, in a 
gentleman, a peer or a king, to make them fill their stations 
gracefully ; so it is here : that proper sense of his own moral 
dignity, is necessary for a great and generous disposition, if 
he would act up to his character. The excess thereof will 
be checked by habits of true piety, which cannot but make 
him feel his own littleness, in the strongest manner ; and by 
continually asking himself •'' Who made thee to differ from 
another ?" or, " What hast thou that thou didst not receive ?" 
he will be guarded against despising his inferiors. For 
generous and ungenerous pride are, not only different (as all 
would allow), but, in most points, opposite ; a man of the 
former character makes allowances for others, which he will 
not make for himself ; the latter, allowances for himself, 
which he will not for others : he is ready enough to think 
that this, and that, is not good enough for him ; but the other 
thinks a base action not good enough for him, and does not 
regard his superiority as a privilege to act in a manner which, 
in his view, would degrade him from it ; and while doing the 
most generous actions himself, as things of course, he will 
make the readiest allowance for others' deficiencies. He will 
do good without calculating upon much gratitude ; yet will 
be grateful, with most generous ardour, himself. To take 
any unfair advantages, or even to take all fair ones — to press 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 307 

his rights to the utmost — to press close to the limits of what 
is wrong, and anxiously consider whether he may be allowed 
to do this, or omit that, — he disdains and would feel degraded 
by it. 

Some men are so excessively acute at detecting imperfec- 
tions, that they scarcely notice excellencies. In looking at 
a peacock's train, they would fix on every spot where ths 
feathers were worn, or the colours faded, and see nothing 
else. 

Men, in general, are apt to consider him as the wisest who 
professes to explain the most ; and him as the most ignorant 
who is the most ready to confess his ignorance. 

Those who are ambitious of originality, and aim at it, are 
necessarily led by others, since they seek to be different from 
them. 

There is many a rasJihj-cautious man. A moth rushes into 
a flame, and a horse obstinately stands still in a stable on 
fire ; and both are burnt. Some men are prone to moth- 
rashness, and some to horse-rashness, and some to both. 

The generality of readers give a man credit for as much, 
and only as much, superiority as he assumes ; and conclude 
anything to be contemptible which they see treated with 
great contempt ; unless indeed that the writer assures his 
readers over and over again, and with strong observations, 
that a work is utterly contemptible. In this case they begin, 
at least sometimes, to suspect that it is not. This is like some 
of the over-done bulletins which annihilate a corps of the 
enemy to-day, and then rout them again to-morrow, and then 



« 



308 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

again announce a third victory over them next day, till at 
last people begin to doubt whether they have gained any 
victory at all. 

One sometimes meets with an " ill-used man ;" a man with 
whom everything goes wrong ; who is always thinking how 
happy he should be to exchange his present wretched situa- 
tion for such and such another ; and when he has obtained 
it, finding that he is far worse off than before, and seeking a 
remove ; and as soon as he has obtained that, discovering 
that his last situation was just the thing for him, and was 
beginning to open to him a prospect of unbroken happiness, 
far beyond his present state, &c. To him a verse of Shaks- 
peare well applies : — 

" thoughts of men accurst ! 



Past, and to come, seem best, things present worsL" 

One is reminded of a man travelling in the African desert 
surrounded by mirage, with a (seeming) lake behind him, 
and a lake before him, which, when he has reached, he finds 
to be still the same barren and scorching sand. A friend 
aptly remarked " that man's happiness has no present tense." 

If a thing is right to be done, it must be right that some- 
body should do it. Is there any reason why I should not 
be that somebody ? 

There may be great faults in reference to small things. 

The peculiarities of women dawn at so very early an age, 
and are so much less variable than their education, that I 
cannot believe them to be entirely, or even chiefly, artificial. 
Even their education itself, is, in a great degree, to be traced 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 309 

up to nature ; for, if Eve had the education of her own 
daughters, they would, of course, learn to think, feel, and 
act as she had been taught by nature, and so on. 

It may be affirmed as a general rule, that Avomen have 
much less totality than men. 

Woman is like the reed, which bends to every breeze, but 
breaks not in the tempest. 

Shakspeare has, I think, in great measure reversed the 
male and female characters in Macbeth and his wife. He is 
readily open to the impressions of fear, pity, remorse, &c., 
and yet bears up against them to the last. She is unmoved, 
and when she does at length feel, she dies of it. 

Mushroom-celebrity is the result of puzzle-headedness. A 
man hardly can rise to very sudden ])opularity without being 
(along with some cleverness), somewhat puzzle-headed. For 
the way to rise to rapid celebrity is to be a plausible advocate 
of prevailing doctrines ; and especially to defend, with some 
eloquence and novelty, something which men like to believe, 
but have no good reason for believing. And this a skilful 
dissembler will never do so well as one v/ho is himself the 
dupe of his own fallacies, and brings them forward, there- 
fore, with an air of simple earnestness which implies his 
being, with whatever ingenuity and eloquence, puzzle-headed. 
A very clear-headed man must always perceive some of the 
truths which are generally overlooked, and must have 
detected some of the popular fallacies ; in short, he must be 
somewhat in advance of the oi ifoWol of his contemjjoraries : 
and if he has the courage to speak his mind fairly, he must 
wait till the next generation, at least, for his popularity. 



310 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

The fame of clever, but puzzle-headed, advocates of vulgar 
errors will be like a mushroom which springs up in a night 
and rots in a day ; while that of the clear-headed lover of 
truth will be a tree ^'- ser is factum nejjotibtcs umhram." Re 
must take his chance for the result. If he is wrong in the 
doctrines he maintains, or the measures he proposes, at least 
it is not for the sake of immediate popular favour. If he is 
right, it will be found out in time, though perhaps not in his 
time. The preparers of the Mummies were (Herodotus says) 
driven out of the house, by the family who had engaged their 
services, with execrations and stones ; but their work remains 
sound after three thousand years. 

If human nature were not, always and everywhere, in the 
most important points, substantially the same, history could 
furnish no instruction ; if men's manners and conduct, cir- 
cumstantially and externally, were not infinitely varied in 
various times and regions, hardly any one could fail to profit 
by that instruction. As it is, much diligence is called for in 
recognizing, as it were, the same plant in difi'erent stages of 
its growth, and in all the varieties resulting from climate 
and culture, soil and season. 

The use of estimating rightly the temptations of others, is 
in order the better to understand our own. If we look only 
to the mote in our brother's eye, no improvement in know- 
ledge can answer any purpose but to increase our condemna- 
tion. 

When the sun's rays are let into a room, clouds of dust 
will be seen floating in the air which before were unseen, and 
va,rious stains and spots will appear, which were before un- 
noticed. So it is with the spiritual and moral light of the 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 311 

Gospel, bj which, as the conscience becomes more tender, 
more vigilant, and better regulated, we shall be given in- 
creased insight into our own defects 

The distinct uses of Scripture, in all that relates to 
morals, and of natural conscience, may be illustrated by the 
comparison of a sun-dial and a clock. The clock has the ad- 
vantage of being always at hand to be consulted at any hour 
of the day or night. But then the clock is liable to go 
wrong, and vary from the true time. And it has no power 
in itself of correcting its own errors, so that these may go 
on increasing to any extent, unless it be from time to time 
regulated by the dial, which is alone the unerring guide. 
Thus our consciences are liable to deceive us even to the 
greatest extent, or to give wrong judgment, if they are not 
continually corrected and regulated by a reference to the 
Word of God, which alone — like his Sun in the natural 
world — affords an infallible guide. But while professing to 
take Scripture as such a guide, we should beware, when we 
consult it, of acting like a man who should pretend to regu- 
late his clocks and watches by the sun-dial, and should go to 
it in the night-time with a candle which would throw the 
shadow whichever way he would. 

All virtuous actions are actions of the mind. From over- 
looking the truth, so obvious when stated, that outward 
actions are only so far morally good or evil as they are a 
sign of what is within. Casuists, in particular, have often 
fallen into hurtful errors by distinguishing venial from mortal 
sins, according to the amount, for instance, of money stolen 
or the like, rather than according to the disposition of the 
agent. Indeed so irregularly and promiscuously introduced, 
in general, are the philosophical and popular senses of the 



312 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

words "moral and immoral, vicious and virtuous," tliat while 
every one would allow modesty, gentleness, liberality, &c., 
to be "moral virtues;" yet a man would not usually be said 
to lead an immoral life, who was clear of all offences against 
the laws, and also chaste and temperate ; though he might 
indulge the worldly, and the more truly diabolical propensi- 
ties, such as covetousness, vanity, falsehood, arrogance, 
envy, malice and cruelty. 

The very definition of a moral duty implies its universal 
obligation, independent of all enactment. A positive pre- 
cept concerns a thing that is right because commanded ; a 
moral precept respects a thing commanded because it is 
right. A Jew, for instance, was bound both to honour his 
parents, and also to worship at Jerusalem, but the former 
was commanded because it was right; and the latter was 
right because it was commanded. 

Some persons seem to submit to the laws of their country 
in the same manner as they do to the changes of the seasons, 
and the rising and setting of the sun, merely because they 
cannot help it ; and not as any part of religious and moral 
duty ; notwithstanding the commands so forcibly laid down 
in Scripture to "be subject to the powers that be, as 
ordained of God ; not only for wrath, but also for conscience' 
sake." 

The king is entitled to more obedience than a justice of the 
peace, but is not more entitled to obedience. For we are to 
" submit ourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's 
sake." If you owe five pence to one man, and five pounds to 
another, you are equally bound to pay both debts, though 
the debts themselves are not equal. 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 313 

Right and Obligation must be reciprocal ; whatever the 
lawful magistrate has a right to enjoin, the subject must be 
hound to obey. 

It is remarkable that two opposite extremes with respect 
to Law, are sometimes found in the same person : the one is 
the extreme of not regarding obedience to it as a duty, of 
not regarding anything as right because commanded, or 
wrong because forbidden ; and the other is the extreme of 
regarding it as the wliolc duty, of looking only to what is 
commanded and forbidden by law, from a persuasion that in 
any proceeding allowed by law there can be nothing morally 
wrong. At one time, if it suits his convenience to infringe 
positive regulations, he will plead the law of nature, and 
urge, for instance, that wild animals are the natui*al property 
of any one who can seize them ; or that all men have a 
natural right to import whatever goods they please, without 
making any payment, except to the seller ; and that though 
the law has limited these rights, and guarded the limitation 
by penalties, yet if he chooses to risk the penalty, he is 
doing nothing morally wrong : forgetting that whatever pro- 
perty he possesses is his by the law of the land and by noth- 
ing else : and yet at another time, perhaps the same man, 
when pressing his legal rights to the most unfair extreme, 
will justify his hard dealing by urging that he does nothing 
contrary to law. 

Of all abuses of law, the greatest and most pernicious, 
because to it all the rest may generally be referred, is 
the setting up of the laws as a system of morality, and 
making them the guide of our conscience, Avhich a law never 
can be. And for these reasons : 1st, it omits whatever is not 
an object of compulsion, and whatever cannot be clearly 
defined ; 2nd, its punishments are not proportioned to the 
27 ' 



314 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

moral guilt of offences ; 3rd, it looks only to the outward 
action, not to the heart. This error is the more dangerous, 
because there is so much of truth incorporated with it. It 
is certainly true, that we ought to do what the law enjoins ; 
and hence the mistake of supposing that this is sufficient, 
though we do nothing more. It is true, that we ought not to 
do what the laws forbid ; the error is in reckoning everything 
right that is not forbidden by them, and everything that is, 
as wrong in exact proportion, to the punishment they denounce 
against it. 

Men are apt to think, that because the mode and occasion 
of undefined duties, such as contribution to charitable 
objects, are left to their discretion, it is therefore left to 
their choice to practise them or not. They seem to think, 
that he who is responsible only to God, has no responsibility 
at all. 

Christian motive maJces (so to speak) duties of the most 
ordinary actions of life, as done '' unto the Lord and not 
unto man;" even of those which, done on worldly motives by 
worldly men, would have nothing virtuous in them. "Whether 
he eats or drinks, or whatsoever he does, he does all to the 
glory of God." 

A life cannot be said to be a Christian life that does not 
spring from Christian faith and Christian principle, any more 
than brute animals can be called religious, though conforming 
to the design of their Maker, and acting suitably to the 
nature with which He has endowed them. No one would 
commend a machine for industry because it is in perpetual 
motion ; or a torrent for courage because it rushes impetuously 
alonsr. 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 315 

It is not enougli that the faith should be sound and the 
conduct right also, unless that conduct be made to arise out 
of that faith. It is not enough that the inward works of a 
clock are well-constructed, and also the dial-plate and hands ; 
the one must act on the other ; the works must regulate the 
movements of the hands. 

The Christian serves the only Master who takes the effort 
alone for the deed. 

A son who loves his father so well as to be ready to die 
for him, is as truly loving a child as he who actually dies 
for his parent ; and he that is ready to forsake all for Christ, 
is as dear to Christ, as if he had actually forsaken all for 
Him. 

So far from any good works being intrinsically meritorious^ 
there are none that can be even intrinsically virtuous. To 
be acceptable in God's sight, they must be " the fruits of the 
Spirit," the fruits of the branches which grow on "the True 
Vine," without whom we can do nothing. The branch cannot 
boast itself independent of the vine, even Christ, on whose 
body we are engrafted through faith, and by whom we are 
enabled to bring; forth fruit. 

The absurdity involved in the idea of being religious by 
proxy — of having good works done for us — would be 
obvious, if men would remember that our divine Master can 
have no need of the services of his creatures. " Can a man," 
asks Job, " be profitable unto God, as a man that is wise 
may be profitable unto himself ? . . . . or is it gain to him 
that thou makest thy ways perfect." The good works, there- 
fore, which he requires of us must be entirely for our own 



316 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

benefit, and not for His, and designed as a training and 
exercise in order to our moral improvement. This distinction 
between works required for their own value to the requirer, 
and those which are required for the exercise of a learner, is 
very obvious : for instance, if I offer a map for sale, it is 
nothing to any one whether I draw it myself, or get another 
to do it for me, provided the map is a good one ; but if a 
schoolmaster sets a boy to draw a map, he would punish him 
for getting another boy to do it for him ; because he values 
the map merely for the pupil's proficiency, as he could draw 
a better map himself, or buy it at a shop. Now as there 
can be no doubt that this latter case answers to ours in 
reference to our Divine Master, it must be a mere groundless 
fancy to think that another person can perform our duty for 
us, or that his good works, real or supposed, can be imputed 
to us, and considered as done by ourselves. 

Though a man may go beyond what is required of some 
other men, no one can go beyond his ow7i duty. It is plain, 
therefore, that no human virtue can have merit in God's 
sight, or any natural claim to reward. 

Some persons have fallen into perplexity and mistake on 
the subject of the rewards promised in Scripture, and the 
merit which some suppose good works to possess in God's 
sight. An illustration from the case of a school will serve 
to explain it. Suppose, for instance, some rich and liberal 
man should found a school for the children of his poor 
neighbours ; and suppose that besides building a school-house, 
and providing teachers and school-books, he should also 
provide prizes for such of the scholars as should behave well, 
an<l make good proficiency in their learning. Every one 
would understand that the children and their parents ought 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 317 

to be very grateful to such a patron for his kind bounty. 
And the children would easily be made to understand that 
they ought to show their thankfulness by taking pains to 
profit by the advantages afibrded them. And when it was 
said that these prizes were to be the reward of good beha- 
viour, no one would be so stupid as to think that those who 
gained them could claim them as something earned by them- 
selves, as a matter of right, and for which they owed no 
thanks to any one. All would understand that the proposing 
of the prizes was from the free bounty of the kind patron ; 
and that the proficiency in learning of the children thus 
rewarded was no benefit to him, but only to them ; and that 
it was entirely for tlieir sakes that they were encouraged to 
take pains in learning. But they would fully calculate on 
receiving the promised rewards in case of good conduct ; 
though not as what they had originally any claim to, but 
because it had been promised. For though the ofier of the 
prize came from the patron's free bounty, the fulfilment of 
a promise once made is a matter of justice. 

And accordingly we read that God is not unrighteous 
(unjust) to forget our work or labour of love, not that He 
was originally bound in justice to reward any good works of 
ours, or that they can be a benefit to Him, but because He 
has graciously promised to be a "rewarder of them that dili- 
gently seek Him." The offer of a reward to any of his 
creatures is a free gift of his bounty, but Ave may trust to his 
justice to make good what He has said. 

If you could imagine the patron of a school such as we have 
been describing, to have supplied to the children not only a 
school-room, and teachers, and books, but also the eyes Avith 
which they read the books, and the ears Avith Avhich they hear 
what is said to them, and the brain by which they understand 
it, then the case would answer more closely to that of our- 
27* 



318 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

selves in reference to our Maker, "in whom we live, and 
move, and have our being." For He has supplied to us all 
our powers of mind and body, and He requires us, as He 
certainly has a full right to do, to employ them in devoting 
ourselves to His service. And He has held out to us the 
promise of the prize of our high calling, the " crown of glory 
which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give at that day 
unto all that love his appearing." 

To this we could have no natural claim ; and though we 
may fully rely on His justice for the fulfilment of his pro- 
mises, all that we can receive from Him is not the less a free 
and bountiful gift, since the promises themselves proceed 
from His bounty alone. 

Some Christians admire giving up something, under the 
notion of its being for Christ, when they are not called 
upon to give it up ; which is just as if a son were, without 
any reason in the world, to stab himself in order to show his 
affection for his father. — This is a theatric kind of perfection, 
of which the Apostles knew nothing. 

Sufferings are only really admirable when God's providence 
calls us to undergo them in the path of duty. But men are 
apt to forget this, and to confound together the thought of 
merit and of pain, because they see the two things often 
joined together ; and when for no good reason at all, they 
inflict suffering on themselves, they think they are imitating 
Paul, forgetting that it was forced upon him. When our 
Lord says, "Let him take up his cross and follow me," He 
draws His metaphor from the Roman custom of condemning 
criminals to carry their own cross, and would teach His 
disciples to endure patiently whatever sufferings may be laid 
on them in their Christian course. The precept is not, it 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 319 

should be observed, "Let him bear a cross" or "the cross," 
but Ids cross, -/. e., that which is allotted to him. So also in 
the parable of a man going to build, and of a king about to 
make war, and who do not fail, if they are prudent, to count 
the cost beforehand, ayo may observe that the cost to be com- 
puted is the unavoidable expense of the undertaking. They 
do not regard the expenditure as a thing desirable in itself, 
and to be sought on its own account, or incurred unnecessa- 
rily ; but they consider how much it is requisite to sacrifice 
in order to accomplish the object. 

And the very strength of some of our Lord's expressions, 
the hyperbolical and paradoxical form which they often 
assume, serves, and was doubtless designed to serve, the 
purpose (in this, as in many other cases) of guarding us 
against mistaking his meaning. If He had bid us merely 
"hate" riches, and ease, and comfort. He might have been 
understood to mean that Christians would be the more 
acceptable to Him for renouncing private property and 
exposing their bodies to the sufferings of cold and hunger, 
and scourging themselves with knotted cords according to 
the ' discipline' (as it is called) of some fanatic, or, like the 
Hindoos of this day, plunging into their flesh iron hooks, by 
which they are suspended and violently swung round. But 
when He says that a man must " hate his father and mother," 
and all those to whom duty as well as affection most bind 
him, "yea, and his own life also," we plainly see, since He 
evidently could not have been enjoining both unnatural 
cruelty and suicide, that He must have been inculcating the 
duty of being ready to sacrifice our strongest attachments, 
when called on to do so in his cause, when regard for friends, 
or love of life, shall stand in the way of our devotedness to 
Him, — when, as it would often happen in the times of perse- 
cution, a man was obliged to make choice between the two, 



820 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEaMS. 

and renounce either the Gospel or the most valued good of 
this life and life itself. 

And fully did the Apostles act up to the spirit of their 
Lord's instructions, ready to "pluck out the eye," or "cut 
off the hand," if it "offend," but not otherwise ; ready each 
to bear his cross — his own cross — the burden of affliction 
■which Providence might see fit should be laid on him : but 
no other. We find them, in their Christian warfare, acting 
the part of good and faithful soldiers; whose duty is to 
endure cheerfully hardship and toil, to brave wounds and 
death, when summoned to do so in the course of service, — 
to shrink from nothing that they are commanded to do or to 
bear; but never to expose themselves wantonly to danger 
when not commanded, nor to inflict on themselves, merely 
in ostentation of their fortitude, any sufferings or privations 
that have no other object. 

The word "mortify," in our ordinary language, is com- 
monly applied to any kind of suffering, simply as suffering ; 
in which sense, either scanty or unpleasant food, or lying on 
a bed of stones, scourging, wearing of hair-cloth, or any 
gratutitous endurance of pain, would be called mortification. 
But the word mortify originally signifies — as well as the two 
Greek Avords of which it is a translation — to " put to death." 
And it is invariably used by the Sacred "Writers (doubtless 
in allusion to the death of Christ for his people, whom He 
came to "save from their sins") in the sense of suppressing 
and subduing sinful propensities, and bringing the body into 
subjection to the Spirit. For instance, " Mortify your 
members which are upon the earth," "If ye through the 
Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." And 
in- the same sense, " They that are Christ's have crucified 
the flesh with its affections and lusts." 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 321 

That the "fastings" of which Paul speaks in the Second 
Epistle to the Corinthians (xi. 27) is an involuntary act, and 
not any kind of religious exercise, is plain from the context ; 
as he is manifestly enumerating, not his devotional practices, 
but his hardships and trials. His "fastings" are mentioned 
not along with prayers and meditations, but with " perils," 
and "stripes," and "stoning." And it is observable also, 
that the " watchings" which he likewise mentions in the same 
place, have no reference to any sort of voluntary exercise. 
In our version, indeed, the word corresponds with that in our 
Lord's exhortation to "watch and pray;" but in the original, 
quite diflFerent words are employed. In the exhortation, to 
watch (yp^iyopsrv) is to be vigilant like a sentinel ; in Paul's 
descriptions of his sufferings; "watching" (ap/u^via) means 
"privation of sleep," "want of repose." And the same 
words are employed in the same manner, when he speaks in 
another place of being " in distresses, in stripes, in imprison- 
ments, in tumults, in labours, in ivatchings, in fastings.' 

It is evident that self-discipline, the bringing the body 
into subjection to the spirit, was not regarded by our Lord 
as the legitimate purpose of "fasting," (a notion which did 
not arise till several ages after ;) for in that point of view the 
disciples would have needed it while their Lord was with 
them as well as afterwards ; and thus, his reply to the 
reproachful enquii-y why his disciples did not practise fasting, 
— "Can the children of the bride-chamber fast while the 
bridegroom is with them ?" — would have been nothing to the 
purpose. The next clause, " When the bridegroom is taken 
away, then shall they fast," contains no precept as to what 
his disciples were enjoined to do ; only a prophecy of what 
would take place in the days when to mourn would be, — not 
indeed a thing commanded, but natural and suitable for 



322 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

Ckrist's disciples. Those days were the interval of despond- 
ing sorrow between his crucifixion and resurrection, and not, 
as some have thought, the life of hardship and privation and 
suffering which awaited them ; for these were a kind of trial 
which he prepared them not to mourn for, but to endure joy- 
fully, "Blessed are ye when men shall persecute you for 
righteousness sake .... rejoice in that day, and leap for 
joy." And well did the Apostles learn and practise, and 
inculcate on their converts, the lesson He had taught them. 
"My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers 
temptations ;" that is, trials by persecution. " They rejoiced 
that they were counted worthy to suffer them for his sake." 
"I am filled," says Paul, "with comfort; I am exceeding 
joyful in all our tribulation." 

That class of superstitious practices, painful sufferings, 
voluntarily undergone, — such as fasting, scourging, watch- 
ing, filthy dress, or nakedness, — springs, partly from the 
tendency to confound merit with pain, and that which is, in 
some cases, a mark of true piety, with true piety itself; and 
partly from such sufferings being regarded as necessary to 
atone for sin. We are naturally averse from the company 
of God ; not only because we are unlike Him, but because Ave 
feel that we have offended Him, and may expect punishmeiit. 
Conscience not only upbraids us for what we do amiss, but — 
to use the words of Bishop Butler, — "if not forcibly stopped 
naturally, and always, of course, goes on to anticipate a 
higher and more effectual sentence, which shall hereafter 
second and affirm its own." Hence we find that, among the 
very heathens, there was in wicked men often a keen sense 
of having deserved vengeance, and a vague solicitous looking 
round, as it were, of the mind in every direction, expecting 
that, from some point or other, vengeance Avould assuredly 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 323 

overtake them; and a starting at every unlucky accident, ns 
if it were " a judgment for their sins." This notion of 
something being wanted to appease the wrath of heaven for 
past transgressions, as distinct from reformation for the time 
to come, is probably one great source of the immorality of 
the heathen religions. Men's thoughts were turned away 
from reformation for the future to atonement for the past. 
The anger of the higher powers, already incurred^ was the 
foremost thought, and the means of averting that were the 
great object of anxiety. Now it is quite true (as we know 
from revelation), that, though the good and merciful God 
cannot thirst for revenge like the weakest of His creatures, 
yet there was something more required than mere repentance 
on our part ; not indeed to make us objects of God's mercy, 
for that we were when He gave his Son to die for us, but to 
make it wise and just for Him to treat us with favour as his 
dear children. But the mischief was, that men's minds 
fixed themselves almost wholly on that something more ; and, 
pursued by a continual dread of punishment, they sought, 
by self-inflicted penances and hardships, or costly offerings 
and sacrifices, to satisfy the divine justice. The issue was, 
that religion came to wear the shape of a plan for tolerating 
vice at the expense of paying certain fines, and suffering 
certain penalties ; and this will be, in the end, the shape of 
any religion Avhich regards sin as something still to be 
atoned for by man himself, in the practice of rites different 
from ordinary right conduct. Christianity met the difiiculty 
by teaching us that an atonement has been made ; but an 
atonement in making which we have no share. It tells us 
that sin (considered as an obstacle to full pardon on repent- 
ance), has been so for ever put away, as that notldng remains 
for us to do, but to accept the offer of eternal life by turning 
to God ; and knowing now that our " labour is not in vain in 



324 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

tlie Lord," set ourselves, with his help, to that practice of 
virtue ■which is, and must be at all times our duty, and with- 
out which we "shall never see God." And the on\ j pain 
God requires us to undergo, not as axi atonement for sin, but 
as a natural consequence of it, is, the pain and toil which a 
man has to undergo in reforming his life, a pain and toil 
which will always be the greater the more sinful his life has 
been, and the longer he has continued in sin. Hence it 
leads us to regard the sufferings of this mortal life, not as 
vengeance taken on our sins, but as fatherly corrections, and 
a painful discipline necessary for our improvement ; in 
which " God dealeth with us as with children ; for what son 
is he whom his father chasteneth not ?" 

Christian self-denial consists, not in volunteering self-tor- 
ture, but in " denying ungodliness and worldly lusts," and 
in " living" (not at this or that particular season, but always) 
"soberly, righteously and godly in this present life." For 
he who is a Christian at all must be one constantly ; because 
he is, as such, a living stone of the temple of the Holy 
Ghost, and should therefore live — not on this day or that, 
but every day — as becomes those who are preparing for the 
coming of Him " who shall change our vile body, that it may 
be made like unto his glorious body, according to the mighty 
working whereby He is able to subdue all things unto him- 
self," and who, "having this hope," strive to "purify them- 
selves, even as He is pure." 

But though this is plainly the teaching of Christ and his 
Apostles, yet it is well known how much, and how soon. 
Christians of later ages perverted their teaching, and de- 
parted from their example. Early introduced, and widely 
spread, and hard to be eradicated, and easily revived, is the 
notion of a man's becoming, by a presumptuous " will-wor- 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 325 

ship," by performance of supposed services that have not 
been enjoined — a sort of saviour to himself; or of atoning, 
himself, for his own, and even for his neighbours' sins. And 
the introduction of such notions and practices into the Gos- 
pel, contrary to its original and proper character, shows, 
more plainly even than the instances of the Pagan religions, 
how suitable to the " natural man" is this kind of will-wor- 
ship. It appears everywhere — in corrupted Christianity, and 
in all the forms of heathenism in ancient and in modern 
times. The notion, evidently, is not derived either from 
Christianity as such, or from Mahometanism, or from Pagan- 
ism, or from any particular form of Paganism ; but from 
some tendency in human nature itself^ 

Since the two, seemingly most opposite, tendencies, a 
desire for temporal victory, glory, wealth, and enjoyment ; 
and the other much more strange tendency, a craving for 
self-torture, are natural to man ; since the two apparently 
most opposite desires — that for worldly success, complete 
self-indulgence, and freedom from moral restraint ; and that 
for ascetic mortification, are found to exist in human nature ; 
one might expect, that any one teaching a religion either 
invented or modified by man, would have been likely to 
accommodate himself to these dispositions of the human 
mind. A superstitious enthusiast or a designing impostor, 
would have led his zealous followers to expect temporal 
success as a mark of divine favour (as was done by Mahomet, 
"who was probably a mixture of the two characters) ; and 
allowed to them a relaxation of moral obligation ; or he would 
have recommended seJf-iyiflicted sufferings as a laudable 
service of God, or most likely combined both ; promising 
them, along with the consolations of piety, the free gratifica- 
tion of their natural desires ; by permitting them to com- 
28 



326 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

pensate, by austerities at particular seasons, for habitual 
self-indulgence at other times. Jesus, on the contrary, does 
neither. He laboured to repress all expectations of worldly 
prosperity, and held forth the prospect of persecutions and 
hardships. He allows of no exemption from moral duty, no 
shrinking from dangers and sufferings to be encountered in 
his cause ; no refusal to bear the cross that may be allotted 
to each ; and yet never enjoins or encourages any self-inflicted 
pain, or needless exposure to danger. His religion, there- 
fore, as taught by Himself, differs in a most important point 
from any that ever was devised by men ; or mixed, and 
modified, and corrupted with human inventions. And this 
is one of the proofs open to any man of plain common sense, 
which may furnish an answer to the question, " Was it from 
heaven, or of men?" 

The danger is not only so great, but likewise so palpable, 
of giving way to intemperance or to luxurious self-indulgence, 
that many are apt to disbelieve or overlook all danger on the 
side of asceticism, and consider that as being, at the worst, 
no more than a harmless error, leading to no evil beyond the 
unnecessary bodily suffering undergone ; as something super- 
fluous, but no wise mischievous. But, in truth, whatever is 
practised and admired as a Christian duty, when it is none, 
is likely to be worse than useless. While the practice of any 
truly Christian virtue tends to cherish every other Christian 
virtue, purifying and elevating the moral taste, and Chris- 
tianizing the Avhole character, because the genuine " fruits 
of the spirit" all come from the same root; the practice, on 
the contrary, of any spurious imitation of virtue, is more 
likely to be substituted for general Christian morality than 
to prove a help towards it ; and thus gradually to debase, 
instead of exalting, the character. Every superstition tends, 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 327 

as far it goes, to divert religious sentiments into a wrong 
channel. 

True Christian sanctity is not the sanctity which shows 
itself in self-inflicted mortification or outward signs of 
humility, or in the pomp and splendour of ceremonies. It is 
that sanctity which consists in the sober and consistent 
practice of Christian morals — that real virtue which is 
"comely, honest, and of good report," always and every- 
where — that "moderation" which uses this world without 
abusing it," which is ready to sacrifice all when duty requires 
it ; but is not afraid temperately to enjoy what God gives 
richly, — that sanctity which consists in walking "righteously, 
soberly, and godly in this present world," and which, borrow- 
ing no help from enthusiasm, or pride, or vanity, relies, in 
the meekness of a rational and serious faith, on the unseen 
help of God's grace. Such is Christian sanctity, and such 
a sanctity is strong and convincing evidence of the divine 
origin of that faith from which it springs. 

There are some who seem to think that in moral questions, 
as well as in doctrinal questions, their judgment is infallibly 
right ; and that though, in practice, they are liable to go 
wrong, this can only be when they offend against the dictates 
of their own conscience. This is to claim a great superiority 
over the Apostle Paul, and to reverse his procedure. He 
did not set up his own conscience as an infallible standard 
of right and wrong; for he says, "I judge not mine own 
self; for I know nothing by (against) myself" (that is, I am 
.not conscious of any wrong); "yet am I not hereby justified ; 
but he that judgeth me is the Lord." 

The meritorious sacrifice of Christ is the only foundation 



328 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEaMS. 

of the Christian's hope, and the aid of His Spirit, the only- 
support of the Christian's virtue. 

What is it of which the devout communicants are really 
partakers in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper ? Surely, 
of the Spirit of Christ. The bread and wine, not only are 
merely a sign, but they are a sign of a sign ; that is, they 
represent our Lord's flesh and blood, and his flesh and blood 
represent the benefits procured by his death. To eat and 
drink the symbols, represents our feasting on the sacrifices 
— our being made sharers of those benefits. " It is the 
Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing." And 
as it is the soul or spirit of a man that animates (quickeneth) 
his body, which would otherwise be lifeless ; so Christians 
who are thenaselves the figurative body of Christ are quick- 
ened — receive life and vigour, "strength and refreshment" 
— from the Spirit of Christ which dwelleth in them ; — " the 
last Adam was made a quickening Spirit." 

We must ••watch" as if all depended on our own vigilance; 
we must "pray" as if nothing depended on it. 

The natural, hearty, fervent prayer of a child cannot but 
be childish ; so that to teach children prayers they cannot 
understand, while neglecting to teach them other prayers 
suitable to their age, is to supply them with a promise of 
strong meat, which they may hereafter be able to bear, while 
withholding the necessary immediate nourishment of milk. 

The Apostle sets Love above Faith and Hope, not merely 
as the greatest of the three, but as including the other two ; 
because it " hopeth all things and believeth all things." 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 329 

The Christian must be prepared to believe all that his 
divine Master has taught, — to hope all that He has promised, 
— and to endure and do all that He has commanded. 

He who taught us by precept to " seek first the kingdom 
of God and his righteousness," has taught us, in His own 
form of prayer, before we ask for " our daily bread," to pray 
that His kingdom may come," and His " will be done on 
earth as it is in heaven." 

The true Christian is most emphatically and preeminently 
public-spirited. "None of us," says the Apostle Paul, 
"liveth unto himself." And he who is the most sedulously 
occupied in working out on Gospel principles his own salva- 
tion, will always be found the most devotedly active in pro- 
moting the welfare of his brethren. 

When praying that God's servant's may be hurt by no 
persecutions," let us not forget to pray for the still more 
important blessing of being preserved from hurting others by 
persecution. 

Most heretics are made so by the orthodox. 

Heresies are indefinitely multiplied by injudicious contro- 
versy — like the prolific heads of the fabulous hydra, by the 
unskilful attempt to destroy the first. 

Many a one has been led, by an unjust and injudicious 
charge of heresy, to suppose that to be a distinct mode of 
faith which, in fact, is rather a deficiency of faith, and has 
thus been partly alarmed, partly provoked, and partly 
flattered into embodying, maintaining and propagating, as a 
28* 



330 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

peculiar system, what is merely the result of his own slight 
and inaccurate acquaintance with Scripture. 

Many heresies have gone out of themselves, as soon as 
men have ceased to blow them. Great is the noise when 
every one is crying " Silence !" 

Some men are very zealous for the reformation of a religion, 
while indifferent to the religion itself that is reformed. 

The strongest term of detestation that can be applied to a 
man — the term " miscreant" affords, in its etymology (mis- 
believer), a curious instance of the fact, that our hostility 
against the rejection of our religion by infidelity is greater 
than against the disgracing of it by immorality. 

The irreligious, or profligate, or worldly-minded professor 
of religion is more chargeable with impiety than the unbe- 
liever, who is, at any rate, not living in the habitual defiance 
of a God and Saviour whom he acknowledges. If two men 
receive each a letter from his father, and one of them, on 
very insufiicient grounds, reject it as a forgery, he is not 
surely more undutiful than the other who, recognizing it as 
a genuine letter from his father, puts it away, and utterly 
disregards all the injunctions it contains. ^ 

There is no presumption in the idea of a Christian in the 
present day becoming as perfect as one of the apostles ; the 
presumption lies in his being content to remain inferior. 

In every Christian duty, improvement is a good sign only 
when it is a promising sign. 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 331 

If no more is required of a Christian than to do his utmost, 
so no less is required of him. 

He who is not tJie better for his religious knoTvledge, will 
assuredly be the worse for it. 

Confident trust in unimproved spiritual privileges will 
avail to secure their advantages as little as will a confidence 
in the possession of once fertile land, whose tillage is ne- 
glected, avail to make it a source of wealth. 

As a frightfully large proportion of the world are, unde- 
niably, practical Antinomians, living as if they did not expect 
to be hereafter accountable for their conduct, the fact that 
so very few of them are found to adopt the Antinomian 
theory, furnishes the most powerful testimony against the 
truth of that hypothesis. 

The fruits of the Spirit is the only test of being led by 
the Spirit. 

As the behaviour of a family will be influenced by the 
character of the master of the house, so the religion of men 
will be influenced by the character which they suppose to be 
that of the Being whom they worship. Thus "he that hath 
hope in Jesus purifieth himself even as He is pure." 

Many a one trusts to the mercy of God, who has never 
thought seriously of the conditions of that mercy. 

When men talk of preparing for death, they mean pre- 
paring for the next life. 



332 \ MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

Those who have doubted of the life to come, or studied to 
keep the consideration out of sight, are generally found to 
believe it the most firmly at the awful moment when they 
would be most glad to disbelieve it ; and then to think most 
of it, when the thought is most intolerable. 

A strong sense of the uncertainty and shortness of life, 
tends to make a man either a thorough-going voluptuary, or 
a thorough-going Christian. 

For the dying man, the death-bed is the best time for 
seeking to make his peace with God ; simply because he has 
no other : for any one else, it is the very worst. 

He who is a sincere Christian never can die suddenly; 
and he who lives otherwise, necessarily must. 

It is very difficult for those advanced in life, who have 
hitherto been deaf to their Saviour's call, not merely to 
receive a new impression for the moment, but to make a 
total change in all their habits, thoughts and feelings ; but 
it will be still more difficult every moment they delay it ; and 
in that change is their only hope. Let not such then 
"grieve any longer, the Holy Spirit," who alone can enable 
any to surmount the difficulty ; for " with God all things are 
possible." Let them consider their Lord as addressing to 
them the question, "Why stand ye here all the day idle?" 
They cannot indeed answer, "Because no man hath hired 
us;" for they have been summoned to go and labour in the 
vineyard, and have refused : but they can answer by throw- 
ing themselves immediately on his mercy and with deep 
repentance for their past neglect of Him, accepting, though 
late, the gracious offers they have hitherto disregarded; 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 833 

striving the more earnestly before "the door is shut," to 
gain admittance to the presence of Him who will " abun- 
dantly pardon" those that return unto Him. 

Though it may never be too late to repent, it is always too 
late to think of deferring repentance. 

False security in the great mass of mankind, arises not 
from a too confident expectation of the glories of a better 
world, but from thinking too little of any world but this ; not 
from their insensibility to the danger of falling from a state 
of grace, but to that of never striving to he in such a state. 

To say "we are not expected to be saints," is to forget 
that the Gospel promises are limited to those who live " as 
becometh saints." 

Instead of enquiring whether there is any harm in this or 
that, we should rather ask, whether it becomes the redeemed 
of Christ and the heirs of immortality. 

The doctrine .of man's immortality, -y/hen once the mind 
can be brought to dwell intently on the subject, is certainly 
the most interesting and the most important that can be 
presented to him. Other objects may, and often do, occupy 
more of our attention, and take a stronger hold of our feel- 
ings ; but that, in real importance, all those objects are 
comparatively trifles, no one can doubt. Other matters of 
contemplation, again, may be, in themselves, not less awful, 
stupendous, and wonderful ; but none of these can so inti- 
mately concern ourselves. Admirable as is the whole of 
God's creation, no other of his works can be so interesting to 
man, as man himself; sublime as is the idea of the eternal 



834 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEUMS. 

Creator Himself, our oivn eternal existence after death is 
an idea calculated to strike us with still more overpowering 
emotions. That man, feeble and short-lived as he appears 
on earth, is destined by his Maker to live for ever — that ages 
hence, when we and our remotest posterity shall have been 
long forgotten on earth — and countless ages yet beyond, 
when this earth itself, and perhaps a long succession of other 
worlds, shall have come to an end — we shall still be living; 
still sensible of pleasure or pain, to a greater degree perhaps 
than our present nature admits of, and still having no 
shorter space of existence befor^e us than at first. These are 
thoughts which overwhelm the imagination the more, the 
longer it dwells upon them. The understanding cannot 
adequately embrace the truths it is compelled to acknowledge ; 
and when, after intently gazing for some time on this vast 
prospect, we turn aside to contemplate the various courses 
of earthly events and transactions, which seem like rivulets 
trickling into the boundless ocean of eternity, we are struck 
with a sense of the infinite insignificance of all the objects 
around us that have a reference to our present state alone ; 
while every, the most minute, circumstance that may concern 
the future life, like a seed from which some mighty tree is 
to spring, rises into immeasurable importance, as the awful 
reflection occurs that perhaps something which is taking 
place at this very moment, may contribute to fix our final 
destiny. There is no one truth, in short, the conviction of 
which tends to produce so total a change in our estimate of 
all things. 

And this doctrine, so sublime in contemplation, so import- 
ant in practice, is peculiar to the Gospel. There it was first 
proposed to us ; by it "life and immortality were brought to 
light;" proposed, not as a matter of curious speculation and 
interesting conjecture, but of general and well-grounded, and 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 335 

practical belief ; brought to light, not as an ingenious and 
pleasing tlieorj, but as an established truth ; displayed to us, 
not as a wandering meteor that serves but to astonish and 
amuse us, but as the great luminary which is destined to 
brighten our prospects, and to direct our steps. " Jesus 
Christ brought life and immortality to light, through the 
Gospel." 

The Christian's hope, as founded on the promises contained 
in the Gospel, is the resurrection of the body, and that hope 
depends not on the resurrection of the very same particles 
of matter, — an idea 'vvhich has needlessly exposed it to cavils 
from infidels to which neither reason nor revelation affords 
means of replying. For, as during this life all the particles 
of a man's body are undergoing a perpetual and rapid change, 
that which constitutes it, his body, is not the identity of the 
materials, but their union with the same soul, and performance 
of similar functions. And that there should be such a 
change in the raised body, is no more inconsistent with the 
promise made to the Christians, than it would be if a kind 
benefactor, who had engaged to rebuild for a poor man his 
house that had been destroyed, employed in the erection other 
and different materials ; it would suffice that he had, as 
before, a house ; and one that was suitable for all the same 
purposes. 

It seems not improbable that the change which shall take 
place in the body at the resurrection of man from the dead, 
may be itself the appointed means for bringing about a change 
in the powers and tendencies of the mind. It is plain that 
the mind greatly depends on the body as its instrument ; and 
on the several members of the body depends the exercise of 
several distinct powers of the mind; so that the loss or 
imperfection of any one particular organ, — of the eye for 



336 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

instance, or of the ear, — will shut out one particular kind 
of knowledge and of thought from the mind; — that of 
colours, for instance, — or that of sounds. It is quite possible, 
therefore, that our minds may at this moment actually 
possess faculties which have never been exercised, and of 
which we have no notion whatever ; which have lain inactive, 
unperceived, and undeveloped, for want of such a structure 
of bodily organs as is necessary to call them forth, and give 
play to them. A familiar instance of this kind, is the case 
of a man born blind ; whose viind or spiritual part is as 
perfect in itself as another man's ; his mind is as capable 
even of receiving impressions of visible objects by the eyes, 
as if the eyes themselves (the bodily part) were perfect ; for 
it is plainly not the eyes that see, but the mind by means of 
the eyes ; yet through this imperfection one whole class of 
ideas, — all those of objects of sight, — are completely want- 
ing in such a man. Nor could he ever even find out his 
imperfection, if he were not told of it. He learns from 
others that there is such a thing as seeing, and as light and 
colours, though he cannot comprehend what they are. And 
if you could suppose such a case as blind persons brought up 
from childhood without ever being taught that others possess- 
ed a sense more than themselves, they would never suspect 
anything at all on the subject ; should they then obtain sight 
they would be astonished at discovering that they had all 
along been in possession, as far as the mind is concerned, of 
a faculty which they had had no opportunity to exercise, 
and of whose very existence they had never dreamed, — the 
faculty of perceiving the visible objects presented to the mind 
by the eye. 

In the expressions and thoughts of most persons on the 
subject of a future state, it seems to be supposed and 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 337 

implied, though not expressly stated, that the heavenly life 
will be one of inactivity, and perfectly stationary, — that 
there will be nothing to be done, nothing to be learnt, no ad- 
vances to be made, nothing to be lioped for, nothing to look 
forivard to, except a continuance in the same state. Now 
this is not an alluring view to minds constituted as ours are. 
The ideas of change, hope, progress, improvement, acquire- 
ment, action, are so intimately connected with all our con- 
ceptions of happiness, — so interwoven with the very thought 
of all enjoyment, — that it is next to impossible for us to 
separate them, and to contemplate a state from which they 
are excluded, without an idea of tediousness and wearisome- 
ness forcing itself upon them. Even with the most perfect 
assent of the understanding to the assertion that it will be 
exquisitely happy, such a state can never be interesting to 
our feelings as they now are, involving as it does a change 
of our nature so total as to reverse every point in it. To 
suppose this total difference between the true Christian's life 
on earth, and the Christian's life in heaven, is to suppose 
that a tree which we had been carefully cultivating while a 
sapling, and assiduously rearing to maturity, was destined, 
immediately on attaining maturity, to become another tree 
of a totally different kind — a plant of some distinct species. 
Now the very idea of a change so total as to reverse every 
point in our nature, whether good or bad, must necessarily 
take away our interest in the reward promised, because no 
one can bring himself io feel (though he may to believe) that 
it is he himself, the very person he now is, that will obtain 
that reward. To illustrate this last remark more fully : the 
ancient heathens had many fables of men being transformed 
into brutes of different kinds, by the power of their gods ; 
now I cannot think that any one of them who firmly believed 
in such occurrences, if he imagined to himself the case of 
29 



338 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

his being thus changed into an animal of some other species, 
could take any lively interest in the thought of what should 
then befal him. 

But I can see nothing either in reason or Scripture, to 
compel us to believe that there is any further change to be 
expected than is necessary to qualify the faithful for a state, 
where what is evil will be taken away ; what is imperfect, 
made complete ; and what is good, extended and exalted. 
Surely, this supposed reversing of the dispositions and whole 
constitution of the human character, is utterly inconsistent 
with those statements of Scripture which represent this life, 
as not only a state of trial, but of prejyaration also, for a 
better world. For if the condition into which the Christian 
is required to bring himself in this life, bear no degree of re- 
semblance to that which is promised in the next ; surely 
there could be nothing of preparation in the case. But 
that there is a resemblance, is expressly asserted in Scrip- 
ture ; a resemblance between heaven and everything most 
pure and virtuous, noblest antl greatest in the true sense, — 
most sublimely good and happy,— most heavenly, in short — 
on earth ; and a resemblance also between Christ's sincere 
followers and Himself, "who shall change our vile body 
that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, accord- 
ing to the mighty working whereby He is able even to subdue 
all things unto Himself." Thus when the apostle John ex- 
horts his hearers to imitate the example of Jesus, and to be- 
come as like Him as possible, he does so, on the very ground, 
that hereafter they may hope for a greater degree of resem- 
blance to Him. " We know not what we shall be ; but we 
know that when He shall appear, we shall be like unto Him ; 
for we shall see Him as He is ; and every man that hath this 
hope-'vo. Him, purifieth himself oven as He is pure." Now, 
if the Christian be called upon in this life to employ himself 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGIMS. 339 

actively in promoting God's glory, and the happiness of his 
brethren, if he be encouraged, also, to keep continually ad- 
vancing in knowledge and in goodness ; to improve in ac- 
quaintance Avith the written Word of God, to grow in grace 
and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ ; is it likely 
that all this advancement should be totally stopped, that all 
this activity should be quenched, that all these dispositions 
should be changed — in a glorified state ? And if the wishes 
and inclinations of the blest are still to remain, in these re- 
spects, similar to what they are now, of course the life they 
are to lead (since it cannot be supposed their wishes will be 
vain, — their desires wwgratified) must be of a corresponding 
nature. And the hope that it will be so, is a hope as well 
founded, as it is cheering and delightful. To be ever ad- 
vancing nearer and nearer to the nature of our Great Mas- 
ter, though we can never reach it, — to gaze ever closer and 
closer on those glorious and lovely qualities, of which we can 
never understand the full perfection, — to advance ever 
further into the inexhaustible treasury of the knowledge of 
God's mighty works, seems one of the sublimest and most 
interesting, and most encouraging, and, at the same time, 
one of the most rational expectations that a zealous 
Christian can form respecting the blissful state prepared for 
him. 

I see no reason why those who have been dearest friends 
on earth, should not, when admitted to the future happy 
state, continue to be so, with full knowledge and recollection 
of their former friendship. If a man is still to continue (as 
there is every reason to suppose) a social being, and capable 
of friendship, it seems contrary to all probability that he 
should cast off or forget his former friends, who are par- 
takers with him of the like exaltation. He will indeed be 



340 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

greatly changed from what he was on earth, and unfitted 
perhaps for friendship with such a being as one of us is 
now; but his friend will have undergone, by supposition, 
a corresponding change. And, as we have seen, those who 
have been loving playfellows in childhood, grow up, if they 
grow up with good, and with like dispositions, into still closer 
friendship in riper years, so also it is probable that when 
this our state of childhood shall be perfected, in the maturity 
of a better world, the like attachment will continue between 
those companions who have trod together the Christian path 
to glory, and have "taken sweet counsel together, and 
walked in the house of God as friends." A change to in- 
difference towards those who have fixed their hearts on the 
same objects with ourselves during this earthly pilgrimage, 
and have given and received mutual aid during their course, 
is a change as little, I trust, to be expected as it is to be de- 
sired. It certainly is not such a change as the Scriptures 
teach us to pi-epare for. 

And a belief that under such circumstances our earthly 
attachments will remain, is as beneficial as it is reasonable. 
It is likely very greatly to influence our choice of friends, 
which surely is no sinall matter. A sincere Christian would 
not indeed be, at any rate, utterly careless whether those 
were sincere Christians also with whom he connected him- 
self : but his care is likely to be much greater, if he hopes 
that, provided he shall have selected such as are treading the 
same path, and if he shall have studied to promote their 
eternal welfare, he shall meet again, never to part more, 
those to whom his heart is most engaged here below. The 
hope also of rejoining in a better state the friend whom he 
stes advancing toward that state, is an additional spur to his 
own virtuous exertions. Everything which can make heaven 
appear more desirable, is a help towards his progress in 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 341 

Christian excellence ; and as one of the greatest of earthly 
enjoyments to the best and most exalted Christian is to wit- 
ness the happiness of a friend, so, one of the brightest of his 
hopes will be, that of exulting in the most perfect happiness 
of those most dear to him. As for the grief which a man 
may be supposed to feel for the loss — the total and final loss 
— of some who may have been dear to him on earth, as well 
as of vast multitudes, I fear, of his fellow-creatures, I have 
only this to remark, — that a wise and good man in this life, 
though he never ceases to use his endeavours to reclaim the 
wicked and to diminish every kind of evil and suffering ; yet 
in cases where it is clear that no good can be done by him, 
strives as far as possible (though often without much success) 
to withdraw his thoughts from evil which he cannot lessen, 
but which still, in spite of his efforts, will often cloud his 
mind. We cannot at pleasure draw off our thoughts entirely 
from painful subjects which it is in vain to meditate about. 
The power to do this completely, when we will, would be a 
great increase of happiness ; and this power therefore it is 
reasonable to suppose the blest will possess in the world to 
come ; that they will occupy their minds entirely with the 
thought of things, agreeable, and in which their exertions can 
be of service ; and will be able, by an effort of the will, com- 
pletely to banish and exclude every idea that might alloy 
their happiness. 

The appearances of angels served to prepare men's 
minds, in some degree, for the doctrine of a resurrection^ 
and to aid their conception of a new and exalted state of ex- 
istence in another world. And this connexion between the 
appearances of angels and the doctrine of a resurrection is 
confirmed by the fact that the Sadducees who denied the one, 
denied the other also. 'Tor the Sadducees say there is no 
29* 



342 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

resurrection, neither angel nor spirit, but the Pharisees con- 
fess both." There were exhibited to the senses of men 
created beings in many respects like men, in others more re- 
fined and elevated ; having a human form and speech, and 
something of human affections, but without the grosser attri- 
butes of mortals. This served to form and to keep up the 
idea, not only that man is not the highest of God's creatures, 
but moreover that there is a state of existence, exalted in- 
deed and glorified beyond that in which we now are, yet not 
so utterly remote from our present condition but that we may 
conceive something resembling it to be reserved for us here- 
after, and may be led to aspirations after something higher 
and better than man's life on earth, and which yet shall not 
be inconsistent with our consciousness of personal identity, 
with our being, and feeling ourselves to be, the same indi- 
viduals. The angels, in short, in their visits to this world of 
ours, gave man a glimpse of a higher and better world. 
They were specimens, so to speak, of what is to be found in 
the heavenly Canaan, our Land of Promise, answering to 
those fruits which the spies, sent by Moses into Canaan, 
brought to the Israelites in the dreary and barren wilder- 
ness, in order to convince them of the goodness of " that 
pleasant land," and to encourage them to enter into it. 

It is worth while to remark that, in all the cases recorded 
of angels bringing messages from heaven, a sufiicient test 
was provided to secure the persons concerned from being 
misled by any delusions of imagination, and to assure them 
sufiiciently of its being a real communication from heaven 
that they had received. The finding of a babe lying in the 
manger at the inn, as the shepherds had been told by the 
angel, saying, " this shall be the sign unto you," proved 
clearly that they had not been dreaming, or deluded by any 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 343 

fancy. Again, the absence of the body of Jesus from the 
se^Dulchre, and afterwards his own appearance to the disciples, 
attested the truth of the announcement of his resurrection. 
And again, the actual release of the Apostles from prison 
was of course a proof perfectly decisive that there was no 
delusion. And, as Dr. Paley has justly remarked, either 
Cornelius's vision, or Peter's — taking each separately — 
might, conceivably, have been a delusion : taking the two 
conjointly and connected, as they were, with each other, there 
could be no doubt of the reality of either. 

The members of Christ's Church, as it now exists, must 
not suppose that they are less favoured than God's people 
were formerly, on account of their not having, like those, 
sensible communications from heaven by thunderings, and 
supernatural flames, and voices, and visits of angels. We who 
have a religion less addressed to the senses, and more spiritual, 
than the earlier dispensations, have, no less than God's people 
of old, a promise of divine presence, and aid, and guidance. 
Our divine Master is present with us by his Spirit. He visits 
us, in the thoughts that arise in our hearts, — in the occur- 
rences that happen around us. Let any one suppose the 
case of an angelic vision presenting itself to his bodily senses. 
Let him imagine himself visited by a superhuman being, clad 
in celestial light, and announcing himself as a messenger 
from heaven. And suppose him to remind him that the 
Saviour who died on the cross for his redemption, is risen 
from the dead, and is gone to prepare a place for him in the 
mansions of eternal bliss ; but that he will forfeit this rich 
inheritance, and lose all that He has done for him, unless he 
gives proof of his love to Him by keeping His commandments ; 
by striving to be led by His Spirit into an imitation of Him. 
The angel also admonishes him perhaps respecting some 



344 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

known sm in whicli lie is indulging, or some known duty he 
is habitually neglecting. Or the heavenly messenger points 
out to him, how little he practises self-examination, or how 
much he is devoted to the cares and pleasures of this life, 
which is so soon to come to an end ; and how little, in com- 
parison, his thoughts dwell on the life beyond the grave, 
and the account he will have to render at the last day, of 
all that he shall have done or left undone, — of all the advan- 
tages he shall have used, or wasted — among the rest, of the 
very warnings the angel is addressing to him. 

Now imagine such a resplendent vision, and such a message, 
were actually brought before his senses. He would surely be 
awe-struck ; he would be roused from carelessness ; he would 
be filled with earnest good resolutions to profit by the heavenly 
warning, by devoting himself henceforth more than ever to 
the care of his eternal salvation. And now, how does the 
case actually stand ? Everything that I have been supposing 
the angel to have said to him, he already knows as it is. Why 
not then act, at once, as if he had received this angelic 
message ? 

Instead of indulging in any vain cravings after a more 
complete system of divine guidance than we have any reason 
for expecting, for we are required to walk by faith and not 
by sight, it is for us to make the most of the advantages we 
do possess, by studying prayerfully the Holy Scriptures 
which are able to make us wise unto salvation, and (knowing 
that, " every good and perfect gift is from above, and cometh 
down from the Father of lights "), by listening to and follow- 
ing as a voice from heaven — as an angel of the Lord — 
every suggestion that would lead us to Him — every warning 
tlvit would keep us in His paths. 

Ask yourself, each one who sincerely desires divine help 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 845 

and guidance, ■>vhether you may not, like some holy men of 
old, have "received angels unawares;" whether you may 
not have been visited, though not by a divine messenger in 
bodily shape, yet by some thought or feeling which in some 
hour of trial, has led you — or would have led you — out of 
evil company, or some other such danger ; even as the angels 
led Lot out of the city doomed to destruction, and ivould 
have saved his sons-in-law, had they not refused the guidance. 
May not some temporal loss, or mortification, or alarm, have 
occurred opportunely to shake off from you the chain of over- 
devotedness to worldly objects, or to rouse you from indolent 
carelessness, like the angel which visited Peter in the prison, 
bidding him arise and gird himself, and causing his fetters to 
fall off, and the prison gates to open ? Or may not the 
ordinary course of events — that is, of God's providence, 
which makes " all things work together for good to them that 
love Him" — have sometimes introduced you to some book, 
or some teacher, fitted to supply to you just the instruction, 
or the consolation, you were most in need of; even as the 
angel brought Cornelius to the knowledge of Peter, who 
should "tell him what he ought to do?" In these and 
similar cases, you may have been receiving angelic visits 
unawares ; since every person or thing through which God 
communicates with us, is, so far, his angel or messenger. 

It is remarkable that there are, in the JSTew Testament, 
much more frequent notices of evil than oi good angels. The 
cause of this may probably have been, that whatever good 
offices men may receive from these latter, are never to be 
sought from them. And it is likely therefore that their ex- 
istence and agency are the less frequently mentioned, for 
fear men should be led into the error of false worship. On 
the other hand, the dangers to which any one may be exposed 



346 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

from evil spirits, it was right to give warning of, and fre- 
quently to remind men to be on their guard against them. 
But though in the Old Testament the allusions to such beings 
are much less frequent than in the New, yet there is no such 
entire omission of the subject as a hasty reader might be led 
to suppose. For the gods worshipped by the ancient heathen 
were believed by the Jews, and by the early Christians also, 
to be really existing evil-demons. For we find the Jews 
speaking, for instance, of " Beelzebub as the Prince of the 
demons ;" and we know that Beelzebub was the Philistine god 
worshipped at Ekron. (2 Kings i. 2 ; See also 2 Chron. xi. 
15 ; Levit. xvii. 7, and Psalm cvi. 37.) And we find the 
Apostle Paul saying (1 Cor. x. 19, 20), " the things which the 
Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice unto demons, and not unto 
God." Demons, it is to be observed, is the term used in the 
original, which our translators have in several places (unfor- 
tunately) translated " devils ;" not recollecting that devil is 
the p7'oper name of an individual, and accordingly is never 
used by the Sacred Writers in the plural number, as applied 
to evil-spirits, whom they designate by the terms " unclean 
spirits" and "demons." And this title, "demons," is the 
very one given by the Pagans themselves to the objects of 
their worship. Thus, though to the Jews these beings were 
an abomination, and the worship of them regarded as im- 
pious, while the Pagans built temples and offered sacrifices 
and prayers to them, their real existence was admitted by 
both. And thus, whether this belief was a dchision or 
well-grounded, it was therefore quite necessary that Jesus 
and his Apostles should make some mention of beings which 
were, in fact, the very gods the heathen intended to worship, 
for the purpose of putting men on their guard against either 
being seduced into the worship of them ; and also for the 
purpose of dispelling any false terrors, and of giving assur- 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 347 

ance of Christ's effectual protection, and final triumph over 
these adversaries. Accordingly, we find frequent mention 
made by the Sacred Writers of evil angels or demons, and 
from various allusions we gather that these evil spirits are 
"angels who kept not their first estate," that is, who by dis- 
obedience and rebellion against God, fell from the condition 
(perhaps, a state of trial, such as we are in now) in which 
they had once existed, and becoming pre-eminently depraved, 
and enemies to the Lord, sought, and still seek, to corrupt 
mankind — watching to seduce men to their ruin ; " seeking," 
as the Apostle Peter expresses it, "whom they may devour." 
And it appears, moreover, that these evil beings have a 
Prince or Leader, called Satan (the Adversary), the Wicked 
One, the Devil, of whom our Lord expressly speaks as 
exercising authority over a host of evil spirits, called by him 
the angels of the devil, (as when he speaks of " everlasting 
fire prepared for the devil and his angels,") and exercising 
influence by their agency ; and thus being present to the 
minds of many men at the same time ; since a leader of a 
numerous host may be said (and commonly is said) to do that 
which is actually performed by his servants or soldiers under 
his direction. Numerous are the references to the existence 
of the great spiritual personal enemy of mankind : see, for 
instance, among many others, Matt. xiii. 25, 39 ; John viii. 
44 ; 1 Tim. iii. 6 ; 2 Tim. ii. 26 ; 1 Peter v. 8 ; 1 John iii. ; 
Heb. ii. 14 ; Rev. xx. 2. Surely it is an awful, an appalling 
thought, that we may be this moment and every moment, in 
the presence of malignant spirits, who are watching occasions 
for our destruction. 

And yet, notwithstanding all these express and reiterated 
statements, there are persons professing belief in the Sacred 
Writings who yet deny the existence of any evil spirits ; 
maintaining that it is a thing utterly impossible that God 



348 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

should permit any such beings to exist. And as for what 
Christ and his Apostles have said, their expressions, it is 
contended, are to be understood as a mere accommodation 
to the popular notions of the day. When they speak of any 
temptation, or any affliction, bodily or mental, as proceeding 
from Satan or his angels, this we are told is only a con- 
descension to vulgar prejudices, and what is meant is merely 
a "personification" of moral evil ; a metaphorical description 
of man's vicious propensities or natural diseases. Thus they^ 
explain away the narrative given by three of the Evangelists 
of the temptation of our Lord in the wilderness, from the 
direct assaults of Satan, into a parable, or figurative 
description. Now it is observable, that this is not one of 
those transactions which are mentioned incidentally in the 
course of the narratives of other matters, nor is it a trans- 
action which the Sacred Writers had witnessed, and which 
they might be supposed to have mentioned merely because 
they had witnessed it, but it must have been brought to their 
knowledge by Jesus himself; either relating it orally to his 
disciples while he remained on earth, or else communicating 
it by the inspiration of His Spirit afterwards. And yet wo 
are told that we are to regard this narrative as a poetical 
figure of speech, representing Satan as a real personal agent, 
while in reality no such being had any part in the transaction, 
or ever existed at all. But, even supposing the language 
employed to be such as might, conceivably, bear such an 
interpretation, still Jesus knew that his hearers would not so 
interpret it, but would understand it in the literal obvious 
sense, in which indeed it has been understood by nearly all 
Christians for eighteen centuries. Now when we remember 
that he who speaks that which is false in the sense in which 
Ire is aware he will be understood, is manifestly a deceiver ; 
not the less, though he may have some hidden meaning which 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 349 

is true ; Tvhat are we to tliink of tlie moral notions of those 
who can assert, that he, whom they profess to acknowledge 
as the heaven-sent Teacher of the Truth, led his disciples to 
believe that he was tempted by a personal agent, when he 
hievj that no such being was concerned ? Him whom these 
bold interpreters profess to venerate as having "come into 
the world to bear witness of the truth:" Him and his 
Apostles they represent as not merely conniving at, but de- 
liberately confirming and establishing a superstitious error ! 
For it must be remembered, that this belief of both Gentile 
and Jew in the existence of evil spirits, if an error, is cer- 
tainly one which the Lord and his Apostles decidedly incul- 
cated. They do not merely leave uncontradicted, or merely 
assent to what is said by others as to this point, or merely 
allude to it incidentally, but they go out of their way, as it 
were, to assert the doctrine, and most plainly and earnestly 
dwell upon it. Not only do they make distinct mention of a 
single individual evil being as the great enemy of man, and 
of his angels or emissaries, but numerous instances of their 
agency are recorded by them. Indeed, among the miracles 
related by the Sacred Writers, as wrought by Jesus and his 
disciples, none are more prominently put forward than the 
cures of persons possessed by evil spirits, or demons ; 
(whence the word demoniac) and our Lord himself and his 
disciples earnestly dwell upon this class of miracles, as a 
distinguishing mark of the Messiah. "If I," said He, "by 
the Spirit of God cast out demons, then is the kingdom of 
God come upon you." And so fully was this recognized as 
a distinguishing mark of the Messiah, that on the occasion 
of one of those cures, (recorded in Matt. xii. 22) we find the 
people exclaiming, "Is not this the Son of David?" And 
when Jesus sent forth the seventy disciples to proclaim " the 
kingdom of God is at hand," we are told that the seventy 
30 



850 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

returned from their mission with joy, saying, " Lord, even 
the demons are subject to us through thy name, to which he 
replies, saying, "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from 
heaven." 

And yet, plainly as these narratives set forth the reality 
of demoniacal possession, there are persons found to deny it 
even among those who acknowledge the existence of evil 
Spirits ; and by these still greater violence, if possible, is 
done to the words of the Sacred Writers. These rash and 
profane interpreters require us to believe that when Jesus 
spoke of " casting out demons," he meant curing natural 
diseases, and was merely accommodating himself to the 
prevailing superstition. They proceed on the assumption 
that the Jews alone, of all nations, had this belief in de- 
moniacal possession, which is utterly contrary to the fact. 
And yet this notion is not uncommonly entertained even by 
educated persons, not unacquainted with the works of the 
Classical Writers ; though the Greek w^ord used by them, 
and by the New Testament Writers is the same ; and though 
the allusions by the heathen authors are frequent to posses- 
sion by a demon (or by a god ; the two words being employed 
by them with little or no distinction) as a thing of no uncom- 
mon occurrence. The Greek word, from which our word 
enthusiast is derived, signified a person thus possessed. We 
read also in the book of Acts (xvii.) of a damsel — not in 
Judea but at Philippi of Macedonia, a Roman colony — pos- 
sessed by a "Spirit of divination." — And the heathen 
Writers represented the priests and priestesses of their 
celebrated oracles as possessed by a like spirit of divination. 
The reality of the existence of demoniacal possession, in 
conection with these oracles, matters not to our present pur- 
pose, for which it is sufficient to be fully aware and keep 
steadily in mind, that such was the belief among those Pagans, 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 351 

no less than among the Jews. The only difference was (and 
this also has aided in misleading many as to the fact) that 
the heathen, as already observed, worshipped as their gods, 
the beings, or supposed beings, which the Jews held in 
detestation as "unclean spirits." Proceeding, however, on 
this assumption, which we see to be entirely gratuitous, that 
the belief in demoniacal possession was peculiar to the Jews, 
these modern interpreters maintain that the supposed 
" demoniacs" were no other than madmen whose insane 
fancies led them to believe themselves possessed. Now this 
supposition is utterly at variance with the Sacred History. 
For though it is certainly not an improbable thing in itself, 
that some madmen should entertain a groundless fancy of 
being thus possessed, yet that the Jews did not attribute 
madness generally to evil spirits and that they distinguished 
it from cases of "possession" is quite certain. We read, for 
instance (in Matt, x.), that "they brought unto Him all sick 
people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, 
and those that were possessed with demons, and those who 
were lunatics, and those that had the palsy, and He healed 
them." And what is more, we find on the other hand that 
the cases recorded are far from being exclusively those of 
madness; for we read (in Luke xiii. 11) of a "spirit of 
infirmity," and (in Matt, xii.) of a case of hUnd7iess and 
dumbness. The belief of the Jews therefore, — be it in any 
case correct or erroneous — as to this agency of evil spirits, 
cottld not have been founded on what was said by insane 
patients concerning their own condition. And as the fact 
that madness and infirmity, and blindness, and dumbness, 
may be caused by bodily diseases was as well known by the 
Jews as by us, there must have been some marks — we cannot 
at all tell what, as there is no record of any such — which led 
them to distinguish — as they undoubtedly did distinguish 



352 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

■whether rightly or wrongly — what afflictions were, and were 
not, caused by the direct agency of demons. 

Such are some of the gratuitous assumptions upon which 
a theory is based that represents our Lord and his apostles 
as accommodating themselves to a popular superstition in 
calling the curing of natural diseases the casting out of 
demons, leaving the shocking consequence to follow that they 
are ariswerable for all the mischiefs that have arisen from 
an error which they fostered instead of removing it. And 
this error, supposing it to be such — one not relating to 
speculative points of natural science — for instruction in 
which Scripture was not given, and therefore upon which 
popular language Avas used as the only intelligible one — but 
on a point intimately connected with religion, and moreover, 
a matter in which the contradiction of the popular belief 
would have been easy and intelligible ; being, in fact, the 
very doctrine then held by the Sadducces. If such a con- 
nivance at religious error can be in any case justifiable, in 
this, at least, it would have been most completely inexcusable. 
It would not have had even "the tyrant's plea" — necessity, 
in its favour. For supposing the Joavs to be ever so much 
wedded to their belief in demoniacal possession, and to have 
been disposed to reject with scorn any one who should have 
merely told them that those patients whom they supposed 
to be possessed were not so, and that the popular opinion 
was all a delusion, — supposing this, still if any one who gave 
them such an assurance did, at the same time, cure those 
very patients, every one would have readily believed him. 
To take a parallel case : there are districts in Europe, and 
even in our own country, where the vulgar sometimes believe 
that children or others, afflicted with some unusual kind of 
disease, are bewitched by some malicious neighbour, and they 
would be highly displeased with any one who should simply 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEaMS. 353 

tdl them that this is groundless. But if we could go among 
these superstitious people, and give them assurance, at the 
same time instantly and completely restoring the sufferers to 
health by a word or a touch, — and this not merely in one 
instance, but in all the cases, and these very numerous ones 
that were brought before you, no one can doubt that you 
would readily be believed. 

The connivance, therefore, at superstitious error, the con- 
firmation and propagation of religious delusion, which these 
interpreters impute to Jesus and his followers, would have 
been one of the most gratuitous and most inexcusable of all 
the "pious frauds" that ever were committed. Now, if they 
judged such a " pious fraud" as this justifiable and right, 
any man of common sense and common honesty must distrust 
them altogether. For "how can one be sure" he may say, 
"at what point these pious frauds are to stop?" How, in 
short, can one be justified in giving any credit at all to those 
whom we suppose to have been knowingly and wilfully 
deceiving their hearers ? 

There are two cases of the agency of evil spirits recorded 
in the New Testament sufficient to prove to all who sincerely 
admit the truth of our Scriptures, that the power attributed 
to demons was not a mere description in figurative language 
of natural disease, no mere delusion of a superstitious and 
enthusiastic imagination, but literally and undoubtedly a 
fact. The one is, our Lord's temptation by Satan in the 
wilderness ; and the other, the case in which Jesus is recorded 
by three of the evangelists to have relieved a demoniac, and 
permitted the demons to enter into a herd of swine. In the 
temptation of the Son of Grod, and in the possession of brute 
animals, — such as the entrance of the demons into the herd 
of swine, the influence of imaginatio7i could have no place. 
30* 



354 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

In the first, the divine patient was above its delusions, in the 
other the h'ute "was as much below it. 

The narrative of the transaction among the Gadarenes is 
perfectly decisive in proving the reality of demoniacal 
agency, and hence it is that those who are resolved to main- 
tain, at all hazards, a contrary theory, have found in their 
attempts to explain away the words of the sacred writers, 
their ingenuity, and I may add, their credulity, not a little 
taxed. Some of these rash and profane interpreters explain 
the transaction by saying, that it was the maniac himself — 
the man who imagined himself possessed by a legion of 
demons, who in a paroxysm of frenzy (of course before his 
cure), drove the herd of swine over a precipice into the lake, 
and who immediately afterwards was cured of his malady by 
Jesus. 

Now this is completely at variance with the narrative of 
all three of the evangelists. For they all agree in describing 
the herd as driven over the precipice after the demons were 
gone out of the man ; that is, after his cure was completed. 
And the whole transaction must have passed before the eyes 
of the Apostles and other disciples, who were in attendance 
on JesuSj as well as of the keepers of the swine ; so that we 
must, if this theory is received, suppose all of these to have 
combined to falsify the narrative in a most important point. 
No one — even a retired student more conversant with books 
than with the habits of different kinds of animals — can doubt 
that it must have been at least a very strange and striking 
spectacle to see a man driving — not such animals as sheep, 
but a herd of two thousand swine, — not from one field to 
another, but, over a cliff, into a lake ! One can hardly 
pronounce, perhaps, what is or is not possible to be effected 
by a furious maniac, with terrific cries and frantic gestures. 
But certainly if such a thing had taken place, it must have 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 355 

been what none of the spectators could be deceived in, and 
must have made a strong impression on them. Yet all the 
Evangelists agree that no such thing did take place ; all 
giving a totally different account of the transaction. 

Moreover, they all agree in saying that the Gadarenes 
came and " besought Jesus to depart from their country;" 
considering that it "vvas He who had caused the destruction of 
the herd. But if the keepers of the swine had seen that it 
was the maniac himself who had done them this damage, 
they could never have felt this displeasure and dread, towards 
the very person who had cured that maniac. One might 
as well suppose they would have been displeased with a 
man for quenching a destructive fire, or stopping a raging 
pestilence. 

We must suppose, therefore — according to the above 
theory — this portion also of the narrative to have been a 
fabrication. 

Now one may fairly ask any one who believes the Evange- 
lists to have falsified their history in such material points, 
whether he can trust them at all, for anything ? and whether 
such witnesses Avould be received at all in any court, or rejected 
with indignant scorn ? 

To take a paralled case : suppose some witnesses to declare 
that a certain individual had been seized and carried ofi" as a 
slave by a band of murderous robbers, who compelled him to 
aid them in their outrages ; that at length he escaped out of 
their hands ; and that after this escape, they went without 
him and committed some remarkable burglary, or other such 
crime ; and then, suppose it to come out afterwards, that it 
was he himself who committed that very crime, and that 
those witnesses had actually seen him with his own hands 
breaking open the house, and robbing and murdering the 
inmates ; would not any man of common sense and common 



356 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

honesty decide that they were utterly unworthy of credit, and 
deserved to be branded with infamy ? 

Any one then who adopts the theory I have been alluding 
to, may as well go on to maintain that the tempest which — 
just before — our Lord is said to have quelled with a word, 
had at length abated, as all storms do ; and that his disciples 
represented it as having suddenly ceased, on his speaking ; 
and that the sick persons He was said to have cured, some 
of them had recovered long before, and some, long afterwards, 
and some, not at all : and in short, that the disciples originally 
joined Jesus for no reason at all, and afterwards fabricated 
the accounts of his mighty works. 

This theory, little deserving of notice as it is in itself, 
becomes important to be dwelt upon as showing how decisively 
this narrative proves the reality of demoniacal agency, if 
understood in the plain sense of the words, and as the 
writers knew they would be understood ; since those who 
are resolved at all hazards to reject the doctrine, are obliged 
to explain away the narrative by resorting to the most ex- 
travagantly forced interpretations, and the most revolting 
conjectures. 

The modern theories of some professed Christian writers 
leave us wholly at a loss to decide where Christianity ends 
and Infidelity begins. They forget one great and important 
distinction between the works of any writers who do not 
pretend to divine revelation, and the books of the Sacred 
Writers. "We may hold such works, for instance, as those of 
Aristotle, or Cicero, or Bacon, in great esteem, without 
believing what we find in them any further than our own 
reason approves ; and even, if we reject, 'svithout sufficient 
reason, some part of what these authors teach, and thus lose 
a part of the truths they inculcate, we may yet profit by 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 357 

another part, and be in no danger of continually rejecting 
more and more. But it is not so with a writer who professes 
(as the Apostles do) to be communicating a divine revelation 
imparted to him through the means of miracles. In matters, 
indeed, unconnected with religion, such as points of history, 
or natural philosophy, he may be as liable to error as other 
men, without any disparagement to his pretensions ; but if 
we reject as false any jt^ar^ of the religion which he professes 
himself divinely sent to teach, we cannot, consistently, 
believe but that his pretensions are either an imposture or a 
delusion, and that he is wholly unworthy of credit. So 
difficult is it to stop short of a rejection of Scripture, if we 
once begin, by making our own conjectures the standard hy 
which tve try Scripture, instead of taking Scripture as the 
standard for ourselves. 

Any man of honesty, and candour, and common, sense, is 
competent clearly to perceive two things — first, that Jesus 
did not accommodate Himself to the religious prejudices of 
His time and country ; else He would not have been rejected 
and crucified by His countrymen ; who would have received 
Him gladly if He would have consented to fall in with their 
notions, and to become such a king as their expectations were 
fixed on. 

And secondly, that His followers would never have know- 
ingly exposed themselves as they did, to scorn, and persecu- 
tion, and violent death, but in the cause of a religion which 
they believed true, and in attestation of what they had plainly 
seen and heard ; and that consequently we must, if we would 
be Christians indeed, and fellow-disciples with them, receive 
their words (in all that relates to religion) as true, and true 
in the sense in which they themselves knew that they were 
understood. 



358 MISCELLANEOnS APOPHTHEGMS. 

What is revealed to us, therefore, in Scripture on various 
points, is to be received, (however different it may be from 
what we might have conjectured,) with humble faith, and re- 
verent docility. 

Excessive eagerness to get over some perplexing difficulty 
often leads rash men to overlook entirely the difficulties — 
perhaps much greater — which may lie on the opposite side. 
In the case, however, of those who reject all belief in the 
existence or agency of evil spirits, they do not even go one 
step towards removing or lessening the difficulty. The per- 
mission of evil spirits is only one branch of that great and 
insuperable difficulty — the permission of evil in the universe. 
The difficulty is just as great to explain how any evil, how- 
ever small, should exist, as to explain all that does exist 
in the world. The mortifying and distressing consequences, 
indeed, of any evil may be greater, but the difficulty of ex- 
plaining it, when that difficulty amounts to an impossibility, 
must be the same in one case as in another. Hence total 
impossibility does not admit of different degrees, the smallest 
amount of misery and the greatest are equally inexplicable. 
All that we can say is, that for some unhnown cause evil is 
unavoidable : and that being the case, it would be folly 
to set limits to the operation of an unknoivn cause, or to 
wonder at one of its effects more than at another. Surely 
there is no greater difficulty — great though* it undoubtedly is 
— in the permission of evil spirits than of evil men. For in- 
stance, that so many should be sold as slaves, and often to 
tyrannical masters, is as hard to explain, as that any one 
should have been exposed to any kind of affliction from 
demons. We need not wonder that an evil being — whether 
man or demon — should endeavour to degrade others into his 
own condition, but that either should be permitted to succeed, 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 359 

is a difficulty we cannot at all explain, though yet no greater 
in the one case than in the other. 

And yet, obvious as this is, the principal person in a tale 
by an author of considerable repute, is represented as being 
at length convinced of the non-existence of evil demons by 
the argument, that God would never permit any evil being to 
have power to molest mankind ; and this argument is repre- 
sented as being urged — and successfully urged — while a 
pirate-ship was actually in sight, the crew of which had just 
been ravaging the country, and committing all kinds of 
atrocities ! The speaker and the hearer of the argument 
are represented as having this before their very eyes, and 
yet without perceiving that it completely refuted what was 
urged ! Yfhatever, therefore, any one may decide as to the 
actual existence of evil spirits, this particular objection to it 
must completely fall to the ground ; since it is an objection 
which lies equally against what every one knows to be true. 
If we suppose some happy world far distant from our own, 
in which sin and suffering have always been wholly unknown, 
and if the inhabitants of such a world were to doubt the 
possible existence of either bad spirits or bad men, there 
would, in this, be nothing very absurd. But for those who 
have the experience of the various evils produced by bad 
men, to deny the possibility of any other evil beings, as a 
thing which could never have been permitted, is an absurdity 
which, to be refuted, needs only to be plainly stated^ 

Though an enquiry why evil-spirits exist would be fruit- 
less and presumptuous, an enquiry Avhy it was made knoivn 
to us in Sci-ipture may be both allowable and profitable. 
Whether anything be made known or not concernino- the ex- 
istence of evil-spirits makes indeed no difference as to the 
difficulty of explaining the existence of evil, — but it may 



360 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

make a great difference as to the avoiding of evil. And the 
great object of Scripture-revelations throughout, seems to he 
to assist us not in accounting for evil, but in escaping it. 
Now I would appeal to the feelings of any right-minded 
man, whether the greater dread and detestation of sin is not 
likely to be produced by our being plainly informed that 
there are evil-spirits striving to seduce and deceive — or to 
urge and drive us into rebellion against God — whether we 
are not so constituted, as to be more watchfully careful 
ao-ainst being over-reached and deceived by a personal enemy 
than against any other kind of temptation — more zealously 
active in resisting the attacks of a living being who seeks 
our destruction than in counteracting our own inclinations. 
It is true that the thought of being given up to the base and 
brutish propensities of the meaner portion of man's nature 
— of losing the proper dignity of a rational being — of for- 
getting God and living as strangers and aliens before Him 
— and of forgetting immortal happiness, — all this is indeed 
very shocking to a well-disposed mind, but yet not so horri- 
ble and appalling as the thought of being ruled over and 
directed by an evil spirit — of cherishing in our bosom the 
great enemy of mankind, or agents of his, who hate b'oth 
God and us, and who are busied in preparing men to share 
in their final ruin. Now the very unpleasantness of these 
thoughts, which is perhaps what has led some men to deny 
the agency of evil spirits altogether, and to explain the 
Scripture language as a mere personification of moral evil, is 
the reason why God has revealed it. He would not have 
taught us the existence of Satan and his angels merely to 
alarm us, if it had not been true : but, it being true, it is in 
His mercy He has set before us all the horrible reality, that 
we may be the more active and resolute in seeking to escape 
and to guard against such an enemy. He knows that there 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 361 

is a kind of ardour and energy infused into the liuraan 
breast by the thought of a contest with an enemy ; not with 
a mere thing, but a person — an active being, who hates us, 
and who seeks our destruction, but whom Grod has given us 
power to resist, if we contend firmly ; and over whom we 
shall finally triumph, under the banner of our great leader, 
Christ, if we are not wanting in our own defence. 

It is well known how common it is to find Satan and his 
angels, and everything connected with them, including the 
"everlasting fire prepared" for them, and for those who are 
seduced by them, considered as something ludicrous, as 
something that can hardly be mentioned or alluded to with 
gravity, as something that not only excites mirth when inci- 
dentally referred to, but is even frequently forced in, for 
the joke's sake, and made to furnish a subject for pleasantry. 

Now surely this is a remarkable and a strange thing ; for 
generally speaking, right-minded persons — all who have any 
pure sentiments and delicacy of taste — are accustomed to 
regard wickedness and misery as most unfit subjects for 
jesting. They would be shocked at any one who should find 
amusement in the ravages and slaughter perpetrated by a 
licentious soldiery in a conquered country ; or in the linger- 
ing tortures inflicted by wild Indians on their prisoners ; or 
in the burning of heretics under the Inquisition. Nay, the 
very Inquisitors themselves, who have thought it their duty to 
practise such cruelties, would have been ashamed to be 
thought so brutal as to regard the suflerings of their victims 
as a subject of mirth. And any one who should treat as a 
jest the crimes and cruelties of the French Revolution, wouM 
generally be deemed more depraved than even the perpetra- 
tors themselves. 

Yet so it is, that the wickedness, and the misery, past and 
ox 



362 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

future, of evil spirits, and of such of our fellow-creatures as 
are seduced by them, are commonlj treated as a jest ! 

Now suppose a rational being — an inhabitant of some 
other planet — could visit this our earth, and witness the 
gaiety of heart with which Satan and his agents, and his 
victims, and the dreadful doom reserved for them, and 
everything relating to the subject, are, by many persons, 
talked of and laughed at, and resorted to as a source of 
amusement, what inference would he be likely to draw ? 

Doubtless he would, at first, conclude that no one helieved 
anything of all this, but that we regarded the whole as a 
string of fables, like the heathen mythology, or the nursery- 
tales of fairies and enchanters, which are told to amuse 
children. But when he came to learn that these things are 
not only true, but are actually helieved by the far greater 
part of those who, nevertheless, treat them as a subject of 
mirth, what would he think of us then ? He would surely 
regard this as a most astounding proof of the great art, and 
of the great influence of that Evil Being who can have so 
far blinded men's understandings, and so depraved their 
moral sentiments, and so hardened their hearts, as to lead 
them, not merely to regard with careless apathy their 
spiritual Enemy, and the dangers they are exposed to from 
him, and the final ruin of his victims, but even to find 
amusement in a subject of such surpassing horror, and to 
introduce allusions to it by Avay of a jest ! 

May the Holy Spirit implant in us all a more Christian 
temper of mind, and more sober and rational thoughts, and 
more humane and purer sentiments ! May He deliver us 
from all those superstititious delusions with which the great 
Enemy of Man seeks to mislead us, and to turn our atten- 
tio,n from real dangers, to false and imaginary alarms ! And 
may we have grace to " watch and pray" as we have need to 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 363 

do, "that we enter not into temptation:" to ■\vatcli in the 
right place, and to pray to that all-powerful spiritual Friend, 
who alone is able to deliver and to guard us in every spiritual 
danger, and who has promised to be at hand to all who 
earnestly seek Him ! 

It is not to be supposed that our spiritual Adversary will 
always present the same temptation again and again in the 
same shape ; even beasts of prey have more sagacity than to 
lurk always in the same spot of the same thicket. 

The temptations of Satan are to be detected by their 
character — were he to appear in his proper person, the 
temptation would be recognized by the tempter — the fruits 
by the tree ; but in the temptations which actually occur, 
the tempter is to be recognized by the temptation, — the tree 
by its fruits. 

It is remarkable that it was about the time of the Re- 
deemer's coming, that men were most familiar with the fact 
of the agency of Satan and his angels. But it was necessary 
to display His superiority over moral evil, as over physical, 
by a sensible and perceptible victory, not only over disease 
and death, but also over "him who had the power of death," 
in short, by exhibiting " the seed of the woman" bruising 
the serpent's head. Hence, we may suppose it was, that 
the great Enemy was permitted, at that time more especially, 
to exercise a direct, perceptible, and acknowledged agency, 
in order to render his defeat the more conspicuous ; that we 
might, as it were, behold him " like lightning fall from 
heaven." And He who for our sake encountered and van- 
quished him, is now ready and " able to save to the utter- 
most, all that come unto God by Him." 



364 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

In the Old Testament history, the angels that are mentioned 
as appearing are generally not created persons, but immediate 
manifestations of the Lord Himself, even in those places in 
which the human form is assumed ; so that the expressions, 
"the Lord," and "the Angel of the Lord," are used indis- 
criminately; and accordingly, in most of these passages, you 
read of divine worsJiij) being offered and accepted. To the 
angels, on the contrary, mentioned in the ISTew Testament — 
the ministering spirits recorded as appearing — divine worship 
either is not offered, or is carefully rejected. " See thou do 
it not !" says the angel to John in the Book of Revelation ; 
"for I am thy fellow-servant." It is important to observe 
that by the Lord Jesus, on the contrary, such worship was 
accej^ted. 

Almighty God has revealed Himself as the proper object 
of religion — as the one only power on whom we are to feel 
ourselves continually dependent for all things, and the one 
only Being whose favour we are continually to seek ; and, 
lest we should complain that an infinite Being is an object 
too remote and incomprehensible for our minds to dwell upon, 
He has manifested himself in his Son, the man Jesus Christ, 
so that to love, fear, honour, and serve Jesus Christ, is to 
love, fear, honour, and serve Almighty God : Jesus Christ 
being "one with the Father," and "all the fulness of the 
Godhead" dwelling in Him. 

In the beginning of his Gospel John tells us, " God, no man 
hath seen at any time ; the only begotten Son, which is in 
the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him," Now, 
the declaration which John here speaks of, cannot be under- 
stood as merely an authoritative announcement of God's will, 
such as was made by the prophets, because the context evi- 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 365 

dently shows tliat lie is speaking of something peculiar to 
the only begotten Son ; hsmg i^nyriffaTo : It is He that hath 
declared Him:" this declaration therefore does not refer to 
a mere message sent from God, but to a manifestation of God 
himself in Jesus Christ : which the Apostle has just described 
by saying, " The "Word was made flesh, and dwelt among 
us ;" and which another Apostle, Paul, describes by saying, 
" God was manifest in the flesh ;" and again, Christ was 
" the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his 
person." Again, the same Apostle says of Him, "Who is 
over all, God blessed for ever;" and besides Thomas's con- 
fession, and St. Jude's expression, " The only wise God our 
Saviour Jesus Christ," we have the form of words prescribed 
to be used in baptism, which even alone are of irresistible 
weight. But not to multiply quotations, I only add that we 
have the prophetic title of " Immanuel, God with us ;" which, 
if it had been meant of mere inspiration, would have been 
no mark of distinction for the Messiah, but would have been 
equally applicable to all the prophets, and which not apply- 
ing to his name, must have applied to his nature. 

Jesus was tried, in the first place before the Jewish Sanhe- 
drim, and was found guilty of blasphemy, because He con- 
fessed himself "the Son of the living God." By this title 
the Jews understood Him to claim a divine character, and 
upon his own confession they adjudged Him worthy of death. 
Unless, therefore, we conceive Him capable of knowingly 
promoting idolatry, — unless we can consider Jesus himself 
as either an insane fanatic or a deliberate impostor claiming 
divine honor not belonging to Him, — unless we come to a 
conclusion involving a difficulty so revolting to all notions of 
Divine purity and indeed of common morality, that all diffi- 
culties on the opposite side are as nothing, we must assign to 
81* 



366 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

Him "the Author and Finisher of our Faith," the only be- 
gotten Son of God, who is one with the Father, — that divine 
character which He and his apostles so distinctly claimed for 
Him ; and acknowledge that " God" truly " was in Christ 
reconciling the world unto Himself." In short, if we would 
believe in Him at all, we must believe in Him as perfect God 
no less than perfect man. 

The same revolting difficulty is involved if we suppose our 
Lord to have received, without any attempt to undeceive him, 
Thomas's confession of faith in his divine nature, for that 
the words "my Lord and my God" were an ascription of 
Deity, and not a mere exclamation of surprise, is evident 
both from the original Greek (which is, literally, the Lord 
of me, and the God of me) and from our Lord's answer to 
him. 

So fully did the Jews understand Jesus to claim to be the 
Son of God, in a sense so peculiar as to make them charge 
him with making himself " equal with God," that not only 
did they take up stones to cast at him for making himself 
God, being a man, but it was on this very claim He was 
condemned. As soon as He acknowledged Himself to be 
" the Son of the living God," His judges cried "What need 
we any further witness ? we ourselves have heard of his own 
mouth," and immediately, they pronounced Him guilty of 
death. And it is worthy of remark, that his being thus 
convicted on his own testimony alone, was perhaps in order 
to fulfil more emphatically his own declaration — "Neman 
taketh my life from me, but I lay it down of myself; I have 
power to lay it down, and I have jsower to take it again." 

When the disciples were censured for rubbing out the 
grains of corn on the Sabbath^ the Lord's defence of them 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 367 

plainly turns on His own especial and divine authority. He 
alludes to the case of David and his companions, who ate, 
not without the permission of the Priest, the show-bread, 
which it was not lawful for any but the priests to eat. This 
Avas, 1st, tacitly acknowledging that the act of His disciples 
was, in itself, as unlawful as the eating of the show-bread by 
any but a priest ; 2ndly, it was claiming for Himself, at least 
equal authority with the priest, who dispensed with the rulo 
in David's favour ; 3rd, it was claiming rather more authority ; 
because there was 7iot, in this case, as in David's, the plea of 
urgent necessity. But then, he proceeds to compare this 
case with that of the "priests in the temple," who were 
permitted to profane the Sabbath, by doing the necessary 
work for the Temple-service : now, this could not mean that 
the example of the priests in the temple authorized all men 
to go about their ordinary business on the Sabbath ; but that 
example did apply to the disciples who were occupied in 
ministering to Him who was Himself tlie Temple, in whom 
"all the fulness of the Godhead dwelt" (Mark ii. 23—28; 
Matt. xii. 6) ; and who, on another occasion, to which I con- 
ceive He was in this place alluding, claims for Himself the 
very title of the " Temple " (John ii. 19—22). Lastly, He 
declares that the " Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath, inas- 
much as the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for tho 
Sabbath. 

On this passage, which has often been but indistinctly 
understood, it may be remarked, 1st, that it implies an actual 
violation of the Sabbath ; else it would have been needless 
to plead a supreme power over that ordinance : 2ndly, that it 
not only cannot imply that any other man had a similar 
dispensing power, but implies the very reverse ; else it would 
have been nugatory to claim for the "/S'ow of Man " (the title 
by which Jesus distinguished Himself) a power which others 



368 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

might equally claim : Srdly, that these are not (as some have 
represented) two distinct remarks, but stand in the relation 
of Premiss and Conclusion ; "the Sabbath was made for man, 
and not man for the Sabbath ; therefore the Son of Man is 
Lord also of the Sabbath." He evidently means that though 
He made no pretensions to a dispensing power in respect of 
woraZ duties (man being made for them), positive ordinances, 
on the contrary, being "made for man" (i. e., designed as 
means — often as local or temporary means — to facilitate 
man's improvement), might be dispensed with, or abrogated 
by, the same authority which established them ; viz., by the 
divine authority which he claimed. The reasoning, at full 
length, and stated regularly, will stand thus : — "Any positive 
ordinance {i. e., one made for man, and not man for it) may 
be dispensed with by my (divine) authority : the Sabbath is 
such an ordinance ; therefore the Sabbath may be dispensed 
with by my authority." 

Christ's being very often, and pointedly, spoken of as a 
man, has been urged as an argument that He was no more 
than man; whereas it is a very strong confirmation of the 
arguments on the very opposite side ; for if Christ were but 
a man, and if nobody had ever supposed Him divine, what 
need could an Apostle have to insist on His humanity any 
more than on his own, or any one's else ? but if all readily 
believed that Christ was divine, it then became important to 
enforce the belief that He was a man. Indeed it appears to 
have been, a very early error to maintain that Christ was a 
man in appearance only, and his body a phantom. Hence 
St. John makes it a test of orthodoxy to confess that " Jesus 
Christ is come in the flesh," but if they were mistaken in 
tljinking Christ divine they would surely have been told 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 369 

expressly that He was not ; since to tell them merely that 
He was human, was manifestly insufficient to disabuse them. 

The Apostles do indeed direct our worship exclusively to 
God ; but to " God in Christ, reconciling the world unto 
Himself;" nor do they dwell on the necessity of making in 
our devotions, any mental separation of the two natures of 
that person who is the object of our worship. They addressed 
their prayers to a being whom they regarded as both divine 
and human; " the man Christ Jesus," in whom " dwelleth " 
(not some emanation or portion of the Deity, but) " all the 
fulness of the Godhead bodily." . They addressed Him in 
their worship by his human name, as " Lord Jesus, receive 
my spirit." Nor could they, indeed, have invoked him as 
their intercessor and mediator, by virtue of his meritorious 
sacrifice, keeping out of their minds the human nature which 
those offices imply. Observe how, in the epistle to the Colos- 
sians, Paul presents to our view the divine and the human 
attributes of our Saviour almost simultaneously ; " in whom," 
says he, " we have redemption through his blood, even the 
forgiveness of sins; who is the image of the invisible God, 
the first born of every creature, (irpwToroxoc: irarfrj^ xTt'gsug, born 
before all creatures) for b?/ Him were all things created, that 
are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible." 
(Col. i. 14, 15, 16.) That the notions conveyed by such 
expressions to a plain reader are philosophically correct, I 
will not undertake to maintain : it is sufficient that they are 
Scriptural. And the Scriptures being designed, by unerring 
wisdom, for the instruction of the simple unphilosophical 
minds of the mass of mankind, differ in this important respect 
from any philosophical treatise ; that while the latter is liable 
to be utterly misunderstood by those destitute of the advan- 
tages of education and learning, they cannot, though they 



3T0 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

may contain passages not intelligible to the unlearned, be 
calculated to mislead them as to important matters, by con- 
veying to their minds an obvious sense which yet shall not 
be the true one. 

This consideration the Socinians appear to have always 
overlooked. Finding that this or that text may possibly be 
so explained as to avoid the obnoxious doctrine, they try 
another, and finding that this also may be explained away, 
they so go through, them all ; not considering how immensely 
the improbability is multiplied, of such a series of texts, — 
such a chain of testimony — being all to be understood, ac- 
cording to a forced interpretation, and not according to the 
obvious sense. If I have to make one hundred throws with 
dice, it is not very improbable that I may throw sixes the 
first time, nor is it very improbable that I may the second 
time ; and so on, of any other single throw : but who would 
infer from thence that it is not improbable I may throw sixes 
one hundred times running ? which every one will allow to 
be a moral impossibility. At the best they will have made 
out the Sacred Writers to be laying a snare for their readers. 
Even admitting that every passage in Scripture would, con- 
sidered in itself, bear their interpretation, still if the simple 
and obvious meaning to plain readers be the reverse of the 
truth, how can the Scriptures convey a revelation ? If, as 
they contend, the worship of Christ be idolatry, must not the 
Scriptures themselves be charged with leading ordinary 
Christians into idolatry ? 

. To explain the atonement of Christ I do not pretend ; but 
as for the fact, I cannot conceive how a man can doubt it 
who really believes the Scriptures, and searches them with a 
caiiidid mind, without any predetermination to believe nothing 
but what he can understand. To quote every passage in 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 371 

which this doctrine is stated and alluded to, would be to 
transcribe the bulk of the Sacred Writings. 

He was the begotten of his Father from all eternity, as 
He was our Redeemer from all eternity ; (whence He is called 
"the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world") for it 
must be borne in mind that there is not with God, as with us, 
a distinction of imst, present, and future ; but all things are 
eternally and simultaneously present to the divine mind ; 
hence the name of God is I AM (Jehovah), and hence Christ 
says, (not that He was from all eternity, but) " before 
Abraham Avas, I am." 

We can comprehend this eternal presence of all things 
only as we can the divine nature in general ; i. e., by nega- 
tives : e. g., all that we can comprehend of eternity is, that 
it has no beginning, and no end : in like manner, as all our 
idea of duration is derived from the succession of ideas, {vide 
Locke,) which a being perfectly omniscient cannot have, we 
are led by the feeble glimmer of reason, as well as by Scrip- 
ture, to conclude that with God there can be no distinction 
of past, present, or future ; and that is all we know or can 
conceive about it. 

In treating of the Trinity, I wish hypostasis had been used 
instead of person, because it would have conveyed none but 
the right sense. Person, in its ordinary sense, always implies 
a distinct substance ; in its theological sense, it is a literal, 
or rather, perhaps, an etymological translation of the Latin 
word persona, which has not that meaning, and is applied by 
the Church to express the distinction which she affirms to 
exist between Those whose identity of substance she expressly 
maintains. 



372 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

God is in a certain sense one, and in a certain sense three, 
and the Apostles were commanded to baptize in the name of 
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost ; because no man 
can be a Christian, unless he not only acknowledge God, but 
acknowledge Him, 1st, in his simi)ly divine nature, and as 
the Creator of the world who sent into the world that being 
of two natures, Jesus Christ ; 2ndly, as united with the human 
nature in that very being who redeemed and who intercedes 
for us ; and 3rdly, as entering into, sanctifying, and other- 
wise spiritually operating upon his creatures. 

The circumstance, that the first Christian writers neither 
mentioned the ■ Trinity nor alluded to any hard or revolting 
mystery in that point, from which, in after ages, arose so 
much difficulty, controversy, and schism, is briefly and 
readily accounted for by the Socinians, by their denying 
that the Apostles taught any such doctrine ; but this is to 
remove one difficulty by raising another much greater ; for 
on this hypothesis we must suppose that the disciples baptized 
in the name of Crod, of a 7nan, and of a quality or operation ; 
and that both they and Christ Himself applied to a mere 
man many attributes of the Deity ; or at least said enough 
to put their converts (whom they never cautioned on this 
head) in great danger of attributing divinity to one who was 
really but a man ; conclusions so revolting that it is wonder- 
ful how a candid mind can submit to them. 

The doctrine of the Trinity, (which is, perhaps, the 
oftenest of any treated as a speculative truth, about which 
none but learned divines need troubles themselves,) as it is a 
summary of that faith into which we are baptized, and the 
]<;ey-stone of the Christian system, ought to be set forth con- 
tinually and universally, as the support of every part of the 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 373 

building of the Christian faith, and the Christian life ; 
reference should be made to it, not merely on some stated 
■ solemn occasions, as to an abstruse tenet to be assented to, 
and then laid aside, but perpetually, as to a practical 
docti-ine, connected with every other point of religious belief 
and conduct, and the foundation of the Christian faith, and 
hope, and love. 

As the doctrine of the Trinity may be considered as 
containing a summary and compendium of the Christian 
faith, so its application may be regarded as a summary of 
Christian practice. As we believe God to stand in these 
relations to us, we also must practically keep in view the 
three corresponding relations in which, as is plainly implied 
by that doctrine, we stand towards Him ; as, first, the 
children of God ; and " if children, then heirs ; heirs of God, 
and joint-heirs with Christ," by adoption: secondly, as the 
redeemed people of the Lord Jesus Christ ; purchased to 
Himself for His service ; and thirdly, as being " the temple 
of the Holy Ghost," our Sanctifier, remembering that "if 
any one defile the temple of God, him will God destroy." 
This threefold relation kept before us, in heart and life, we 
shall find in God a Father, a Saviour, and a Comforter, now 
and for ever. 

It is a common error to acknowledge in general terms, the 
necessity of the ordinary operation of the Spirit, but to 
explain them away in each particular case ; thus completely 
nullifying the doctrine of spiritual influence. 

Redemption by Christ, and the'other doctrines immediately 
connected with this, are exposed to be rejected, from their 
being by no means flattering to the pride of human nature. 
Men are apt to be prejudiced against them, from wishing to 
believe only such truths as their own reason can discover, 
32 



374 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

and to be saved solely by their own merits ; and especially 
is this prejudice the besetting sin of men whose reason is 
cultivated, and who are free from the propensity to gross 
vices. Some such men bring themselves to withstand the 
evidence of Christianity ; others think it easier (though both 
are, in truth, equally hard) to explain away those doctrines 
they object to ; and which are, in reality, all that make the 
essential difference between Christianity and Infidelity. But 
I would not attribute this temper to all Socinians, many of 
whom, I trust, would scorn the uncandid artifices and gross 
cheats (such as, I believe, were never exceeded in any con- 
troversy) by which too many of their leaders seek to main- 
tain their cause. And many Socinians have, I am convinced, 
been scared from belief by the harsh, revolting, self-contra- 
dictory statements, the dogmatical violence, and the futile 
explanations, into which too many of the orthodox have 
fallen. It should be remembered, among other things, that 
a professed explanation may ahvays be fairly objected to, if 
unintelligihle ; not so, if you keep to the words of Scripture^ 
for what we cannot comprehend onay nevertheless be true, 
and must be, if God has expressly revealed it. 

To have ascertained, and to perceive a reason for anything 
that God has done, is far different from perceiving the 
reason ; though the two are often confounded. We are sure 
that the sun gives light and heat to the world ; and many 
ignorant savages, perhaps, conclude from thence, that it was 
created for no other purpose ; doubtless we are as much 
called on for gratitude as if the case were so ; but we are 
well assured that many other planets partake of the same 
advantages, and we should be very much to blame, were we 
to conclude positively that even this is the only, or indeed 
the principal, purpose for which the sun was created. So, 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 375 

M'hatever benefits to mankind we may perceive from the 
manifestation of God in the flesh, we have no right to infer 
that there may not be other, and even greater objects effected 
by it, of which, for the present at least, we must remain 
ignorant. 

If, with due reverence, we enquire — not, why the incarna- 
tion of God in Christ was necessary — an enquiry both fruit- 
less and presumptuous, — but (as what it cannot but behove 
us to know) why He thought fit to reveal this incarnation, to 
announce Himself as the eternal " Word made flesh," we 
shall find good reason for concluding that it was, in part at 
least, for two purposes most important to mankind ; first, by 
a softened and endearing, as well as impressive, manifesta- 
tion of the Deity, to aid and exalt our piety, engaging our 
affections in the cause of religion ; and secondly, by a bright 
example of superhuman virtue, seconded by the promise of 
spiritual aid, to instruct and encourage us in our duty — to 
illuminate and direct our Christian course — to purify and 
elevate our nature. The one purpose, in short, may be said 
to have been to bring down God to man, the other to lift up 
man towards God. 

Jesus Christ, as "the image of the invisible God," de- 
clared God to man by manifesting, as far as our feeble facul- 
ties well permit, the divine glory, and shadowing forth the 
attributes of the unsearchable God, exhibiting a more im- 
pressive and endearing picture of them than we could in any 
other way attain ; and thus drawing our whole heart and 
affections towards Him. 

When Christ fed a multitude with five loaves. He made not 
indeed a greater, or a more benevolent display of power, than 
He does in supporting, from day to day, so many millions 



876 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

of men and other animals as the earth contains ; but it was 
an instance far better calculated to make an impression on 
men's minds of his goodness and parental care. I speak 
not now of this miracle as an evidence of his pretensions ; 
for that purpose would have been answered as well by a 
miracle of destruction ; but of the peculiar beneficent charac- 
ter of it. The same may be said of his healing the sick, 
raising the dead, and teaching the people. 

Many, it is true, of the qualities which our Lord displayed, 
such as his patience under provocation, and fortitude against 
pain and danger, are such as can belong to Him in his 
human nature alone, and can present us but a very faint 
shadow of the attributes of God considered as such ; but still 
these are attributes of one and the same Person, in whom 
we believe the divine and human natures to have been 
united ; though we can no more comprehend that union than 
we can that of the human soul and body ; and they are well 
fitted to fix our afiections on that Person. 

If, as is notoriously the fact, our only notion of the divine 
attributes, and our terms for expressing them, are, and 
always must be, borrowed from such human qualities as have 
the most analogy to them, it seems to follow inevitably, that 
the more excellent man would give us ever the more adequate 
notion of the divine excellence ; and, consequently, that the 
life of that Man who was altogether perfect, by union with 
the Godhead, must alFord us the very best idea (however im- 
perfect that best may be) that we can attain of the moral 
attributes of God. 

As it may be said to have been one purpose of the re- 
velation of the stupendous work of the incarnation to bring 
down God to man; so we have reason to conclude another 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 377 

purpose to have been to lift up man to God, by exhibiting, 
seconded by the promise of spiritual aid, a perfect and ex- 
alted model of human excellence, and proposing it for our 
imitation. 

It is an old and well-established maxim, that men learn 
better from example than from precept. But the difficulty is 
to find an example fit for imitation. Mere human models are 
all, more or less, imperfect ; and the faults and the virtues 
of each individual are, in general, so intimately blended, that 
there must always be a certain degree of danger in copying 
even the best men. And an ideal model, such as the 
Sapiens, the wise man, or perfectly good and happy charac- 
ter, whom the Stoics held forth as a pattern, even if we sup- 
pose it unexceptionable, wants, as ideal, the power of inspir- 
ing that interest and sympathy — that afiectionate reverence 
— that emulation which a really existing person can alone 
inspire ; and, being represented to us only by general de- 
scription, is but one short step removed from abstract moral 
precept. The mode by which this difficulty is met by Chris- 
tianity, is absolutely peculiar to it. By it — and by it alone 
— an example is, proposed to us, superior by its living reality 
to all ideal models however perfect, and to all real but 
human ones, in its superhuman perfection. 

If, while some of the ancient moralists were employed in 
recounting the actions, and holding forth the examples, of 
really existing illustrious men, to stimulate the emulation of 
their hearers, — and while others were pointing out, in the 
grave and lofty descriptions of the philosopher, or the vivid 
representations of the poet, an ideal exemplar of perfect ex- 
cellence ; — a man exhibited, such as men should be, not such 
as they are, — what would these sages, I say, have thought, 

had they been assured on sufficient evidence that such a man 
P9 * 



378 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

had actually appeared on earth ; not having his virtues tar- 
nished with defects, like the heroes of their histories ; not a 
phantom of imagination, like the persons of their theatre, or 
the wise men of their schools ; but a real, living, sublime and 
faultless model of god-like virtue ? Surely they would have 
acknowledged, with one voice, that such a character, and 
such a one only, was exactly suited to their wishes, and to 
the wants of their hearers ; if they were at all sincere in 
their professions, they would have hailed with rapture the 
announcement of his existence ; but would have wondered at 
the same time, and doubted, how human nature could, ever 
have attained this pitch of excellence. We might have an- 
swered them, human nature by itself is indeed far too weak 
for the task ; but in Christ the divine nature was united to 
it; in Him "dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily;" 
the Deity was ever present in an especial manner to direct 
and support his human soul ; and thus presented to his crea- 
tures a perfect pattern, which through the promised aid of 
the Spirit of Christ, they may copy ; that by imitating the 
divine excellence, as far as it is possible for a creature to do 
so, we may become, as Christ himself expresses it, " like unto 
our Father which is in heaven," and be thus fitted for enjoy- 
ing a more near approach to his presence in a better state ; 
that we also may be, more completely than in this life, 
"sons of God, brethren, and joint-heirs of Christ," and par- 
takers of his glory. "Beloved," says the Apostle John, 
" now are we the sons of God ; and it doth not yet appear 
what we shall be ; but we know that when he shall appear 
we shall be like unto Him; for we shall see Him as He is." 
Whatever may be our station in life, or peculiar circum- 
stances, we shall still find that Jesus Christ has " left us an 
ensample that we should follow his steps ;" because the prin- 
ciple of devoted obedience to God, love towards man, and 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 379 

abjuration of all selfish objects, is one wbich is called for, 
and must be put in isractice, in every situation. Besides 
■\vbicb, it is very remarkable, that while all the illustrious 
characters which are usually held up to our imitation, are 
persons who occupied such exalted stations, that their lives 
afford but little instruction to those in humbler and more 
private situations, (that is, in fact, to the great mass of man- 
kind,) our Saviour's life, on the contrary, though he had so 
high an office to execute, yet, from the humble station in 
which he appeared, contain lessons for every description of 
mankind. And if the student's own heart be not in fault, 
his character will not fail to receive some tincture from the 
character he is contemplating. Every Christian who de- 
serves the name makes it his attentive study ; and those who 
have learned the most of it, are ever the most desirous, and 
the most capable, of learning yet more. Many valuable 
writers have treated of the subject ; but the Gospels them- 
selves (as those very writers would be the first to admit), 
will teach more of the imitation of Jesus than all other books 
together. Each man may do more for himself in this study 
than the ablest theologian can do for him. He will find in 
every page such active yet unpretending benevolence — such 
exalted generosity and self-devotedness — such forbearing 
kindness and lowliness, combined with dignity — such earnest 
and steady, yet calm and considerate, zeal — such quiet and 
unostentatious fortitude — such inflexible yet gentle resolution 
— that he must acknowledge with the Jewish officers, "never 
man spake like this man:" "never did man," he will add, 
"act like this man;" "truly," as the centurion remarked, 
" this was a righteous man ; truly this was the Son of God ;" 
it was "Emanuel, God with us." 

The birth of Him who came into the world to save his 



380 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

people from their sins, will be remembered by each one of us 
thousands of ages hence, and for ever. It behoves us to 
reflect, in time, how it will be remembered by us in eternity. 

There is but one mediator between God and man, — Christ 
Jesus — between him and man — none. He is ever near us — 
ever ready to hear us. 

Those who deny the divine character of Christ and the 
Atonement by his blood, and reckon Him as no more than a 
great prophet while yet dwelling on his resurrection as the 
chief part of the Gospel which they profess to receive, would 
do well to receive the instruction it affords to all who are 
willing to learn. His rising merely from the dead, and 
preaching the doctrine of a general resurrection to others, 
would not, certainly, prove Him to be more than man ; but 
if He raised himself from the dead by his own power, and 
promised to his faithful followers not merely that they should 
rise again, but that He would "raise them up at the last 
day," it is surely plain He could be no less than divine. 
" No man," said he, "taketh my life from me, but I lay it 
down of myself; I have power to lay it down, and I have 
power to take it again." The same Scriptures that tell us 
"Him God raised up," plainly show that this was that 
"fulness of the Godhead" which, as the Apostle tells us, 
"dwelt in Jesus Christ bodily." For He is everywhere 
represented as himself overcoming and triumphing over 
death. This He did by leading the way to immortal life ; 
by being "the first fruits of them that slept;" having, as 
man, been subject to death, and as God "manifest in the 
flesh" raised himself from death to confirm his promise that 
He would raise up his faithful followers ; suffering the 
penalty of sin in his own person, and entering first into the 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 381 

glory prepared for his disciples — the rcAvard which He, not 
they, had earned. HeDce it is stated by the Apostle that 
He "was delivered for our offences, and rose again for our 
justification." 

The Scriptures present to us the Resurrection of Jesus in 
three points of view. — I. It was a decisive evidence of the 
truth of his Gospel. 11. It explained in a great degree the 
doctrines of that Gospel and its whole character. III. It 
furnishes a type, representation, or emblem of the new and 
spiritual life required of the Christian ; that we, being dead 
indeed unto sin and alive unto God througk Jesus Christ our 
Lord, we may become new creatures, — "that like as Christ 
was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even 
so we also should walk in newness of life." 

The doctrine of salvation by the meritorious sacrifice of 
Christ, is objected to as dangerous ; but there is hardly any- 
thing that is not, if men will but determine to pervert and 
misapply it. It is urged, that a man may give himself up to 
sin, and call this trusting in the merits of Christ : true ! and 
so may a Deist, trusting in like manner to the mercy of God ; 
for who can set bounds to that ? The misinterpretations of 
pervcrseness and folly we disavow, but cannot prevent ; the 
fault is in the men, not in the doctrines. " Abusus non tollit 
usum." 

As the cloudy pillar which stood between the camp of the 
Egyptians and the camp of Israel was a cloud and darkness 
to those, but gave light by night to these ; even thus, Paul 
found the Gospel of " Christ crucified" was "to the Jews a 
stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness ;" but to them 
that believe, "the wisdom of God and the power of God." 



382 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

The Christian faith is not merely to believe what Christ 
has taught, but to believe in Him. Jesus did not come to 
mahe a revelation so much as to be the subject of a revelation. 
He was only so far the revealer and teacher of the great 
doctrines of Christianity, as we might call the sun and planets 
the discoverers of the Newtonian system of astronomy. He 
is not merely the teacher of the true way to eternal life, — 
He is " the Way, the Truth, and the Life." He is not merely 
the preacher of the resurrection and immortal life, — He is 
the Resurrection and the Life, 

May his Holy Spirit implant this faith in our affections, 
and enable us to display it in our lives ; and bring us to be 
partakers of the blessing He has promised to those who, 
having "not seen," have yet believed; "that believing, we 
might have life through his name." 

The Socinian's argument weighs against himself in several 
points. For instance, it is urged, that the meritorious sacri- 
fice of Christ is a most unintelligible and mysterious means 
of salvation ; whereas, if we suppose that the establishment 
of a pure and authoritative system of morality was the object 
of his mission, the whole is quite conceivable and reasonable. 
Such is the Socinian's argument. Now, I should be inclined 
to conjecture, a priori, that a revelation would probably 
contain something which unassisted reason would never have 
devised. It is surely not inconceivable, at least, that God 
may see a fitness in our believing some truths which are, to 
our present faculties, incomprehensible ; supposing, as I do, 
that this is the state of the fact, I readily perceive the neces- 
sity of a revelation, which I could not perceive, if I thought 
this revelation contained nothing but what was discovered or 
discoverable without it. 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 383 

It has been alleged by objectors to Christianity, that God 
would never interfere with the course of his own creation, 
and therefore that a divine revelation and miracles are, a 
priori, impossible. But they forget, that it is not in our 
230wer to determine what are interruptions of the course of 
Nature. If one of the ephemeral insects which only exist 
a single day, were to be endowed with reason, and to have 
his life so prolonged as to behold the approach of night, he 
would imagine the sinking sun and the darkness were a won- 
derful and terrible interruption to the course of nature, 
instead of p)art of that regular course. And so, if a clock 
could be so constructed as to strike once in a century, each 
striking would seem to those who knew nothing of its work- 
manship, a curious phenomenon or accident. Again, it was 
at first thought that comets moved at random through the 
skies, and were mere accidents in the system of the universe ; 
now it is known that their revolutions are subject to definite 
laws. And so much in the scheme of God's providence 
which we imagined to be interruptions, may, in fact, be 
merely parts of that great system, of which we can only 
dimly understand a small portion. 

Whoever rejects as incredible the notion of there having 
been any direct communication between God and man at any 
time, because we have no visible proof of any such communi- 
cation taking place now, must believe that Man at first civi- 
lized himself. Now everything that we know of the laws of 
the human mind lead us to judge that this is impossible ; 
and all experience tends to prove that such a thing has never 
happened ; nor can a single instance be alleged, without 
manifestly begging the question, of any nation that ever of 
itself made the first steps from a savage to a civilized state. 
When, indeed, men have arrived at a certain stage in the 



384 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

advance towards civilization (far short of what exists in 
Europe), it is then possible for them, if nothing occurs to 
keep them back, to advance further and further towards a 
more civilized state. Human society may be compared to 
some combustible substances which will not take fire spon- 
taneously, but when once set on fire will burn with con- 
tinually increasing force. A community of men requires to 
be kindled, but requires no more. And this it is that mis- 
leads some persons in their notions respecting savages. For, 
finding that there is no one art which might not have been 
invented by unassisted Man ; supposing him to have a certain 
degree of civilization to start from, they hence conclude that 
unassisted Man might have invented all the arts, sup>posing 
him left originally in a completely savage state. But this 
will be found to be contradicted by all history, and inconsis- 
tent with the character of such beings as savages actually 
are. The turbulent and unrestrained passions, the indolence 
— and above all, the want of forethought, which are charac- 
teristic of savages, naturally tend to prevent, and, as expe- 
rience seems to show, always have prevented, any process 
of gradual advancement from taking place, except when the 
savage is stimulated by the guidance and instruction of men 
superior to himself. 

Any one who dislikes the conclusions to which these views 
lead, will probably set himself to contend against the argu- 
ments which prove it unlikely that savages should civilize 
themselves ; but how will he get over the fact that they never 
yet have done this ? That they never can, is a theory ; and 
something may always be said, well or ill, against any 
theory ; but facts are stubborn things ; and that no authenti- 
cated instances can be produced of savages that ever did 
emerge, unaided, from that state, is no theory, but a state- 
ment, hitherto uncontradicted, of a matter of fact. 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 385 

Now if this be the case, when, and how, did civilization 
first begin ? If Man, when first created, was left, like the 
brutes, to the unaided exercise of those natural powers of 
body and mind, which are common to the European and to 
the New-Hollander — how comes it that the European is not 
now in the condition of the New-Hollander ? As the soil 
itself and the climate of New-Holland are excellently 
adapted to the growth of corn, and yet (as corn is not indi- 
genous there) could never have borne any to the end of the 
world, if it had not been brought thither from another coun- 
try, and sown ; so, the savage himself, though he may be, as 
it were, a soil capable of receiving the seeds of civilization, 
can never, in the first instance produce it, as of spontaneous 
growth ; and unless those seeds be introduced from some 
other quarter, must remain for ever in the sterility of barba- 
rism. And from what quarter, then, could this first begin- 
ning of civilization have been supplied, to the earliest race 
of )nankind ? According to the present course of nature, 
the first introducer of cultivation among savages, is, and 
must be, Man, in a more improved state : in the beginning 
therefore of the human race, this, since there was no man to 
effect it, must have been the work of another Being. There 
must have been, in short, a Revelation made to the first, or 
to some subsequent generation, of our species. And this 
miracle (for such it is, as being an impossibility according to 
the present course of nature), is attested, independently of 
the authority of Scripture, and consequently in coyifirmation 
of the Scripture accounts, by the fact, that civilized Man 
exists at the present day. 

Taking this view of the subject, we have no need to dwell 
on the utility, the importance, the antecedent probability — 
of a Revelation ; it is established as a fact, of which a 
monument is existing before our eyes. Divine instruction is 



886 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

proved to be necessary, not merely for an end wliicli ive 
tliink desirable, or which v!e think agreeable to divine wisdom 
and goodness, but for an end which we knoiv has been 
attained. That Man could not have made himself, is ap- 
pealed to as a proof of the agency of a divine Creator : and 
that Mankind could not, in the first instance, have civilized 
themselves, is a proof, exactly of the same kind, and of equal 
strength, of the agency of a divine Instructor. 

Some are apt to suppose from the copious and elaborate 
arguments that have been urged in defence of the authenti- 
city of the Christian Scriptures, that it is harder to be es- 
tablished than that of other supposed ancient books. But 
the importance and the difficulty of proving anything, are 
very apt to be confounded together, though easily distin- 
guishable. We bar the doors carefully, not merely when we 
-expect an yxxm^VioWj foj^midable aitack, but when we have an 
unusual treasure in the house. 

The authority on which we rest our conviction of the 
genuineness of the New Testament Scriptures, is of the same 
kind with that on which we acknowledge the works of; 
Cicero and other classical authors, though incomparably 
stronger in degree. For it is not to the Roman world, in its 
widest acceptation, but to the literary portion of it, that we 
appeal in respect of any volume of the classics. On the 
contrary, the Christian Scriptures were addressed to all 
classes (the doctrine of what is called "Eeserve," of putting 
the light of the Gospel under a bushel, being no part of the 
apostolic system), so that probably for one reader of Cicero 
or Livy, there were more than fifty persons, even in a very 
early period of the Church, anxious to possess copies of the 
New Testament Scriptures ; and careful, in proportion to the 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 387 

high importance of the subject, as to the genuineness and 
accuracy of what thej read. There are not a few, who 
being accustomed to hear the authority of the jDrimitive 
church spoken of as that on which we receive the New Tes- 
tament Scriptures, are led to fancy it the authority of some 
one society acting collectively/, and in its corporate capacity ; 
and thus, they lose sight of the very circumstance on which 
the chief force of this testimony depends, namely, that there 
never was a decree or decision of any one Society ; but, 
what has far more weight, the concurring independent con- 
victions of a great number of distinct churches in various 
regions of the world. 

The testimony which the works of the early Fathers bear 
to the facts and doctrines of the sacred books, as Christians 
now have them, has been well compared to that aiforded by 
the fossil remains of antediluvian animals, which prove that, 
at a certain remote period, animals such as are known to us 
have inhabited the earth. 

The credibility of our Scriptures is established by several 
distinct arguments, each separately tending to show that 
those books were, from the earliest ages of Christianity, well 
known and carefully preserved among Christians ; namely : 
— (1) They were quoted by ancient Christian writers (2) with 
peculiar respect, (3) collected into a distinct volume, and (4) 
distinguished by appropriate names and titles of respect, (5) 
publiclv read and expounded, and (6) had commentaries, &c., 
written on them ; (7) were received by Christians of different 
sects ; &c., &c 

The Lord's day is observed all over the world, by different 
and even hostile bodies of Christians, in memory of the 



388 MISCELLANEOU'S APOPHTHEGMS. 

resurrection of Jesus Christ, and not only so, but it is 
observed by them as a day which has been always thus kept, 
from the very day when the Lord Jesus is recorded to have 
risen, and to have appeared to his disciples. Now had the 
observance of it not been from the very first, but introduced 
in some later age, those among whom it was thus introduced, 
would have been able to testify that they had never heard 
of such a festival before. Here then is a monument of the 
truth of the Sacred History. 

The existence of a Christian ministry generally, or the 
unbroken apostolical succession of an order of men, is per- 
haps as complete a moral certainty as any historical fact can 
be. For if a century ago, or ten centuries ago, or at any 
other time, a number of men had arisen, claiming to be the 
immediate successors of persons holding this offiee, when, in 
fact, no such order of men had ever been heard of, such a 
silly pretension would have been immediately exposed and 
derided. And consequently the Christian ministry is a 
standing monument to attest the public inoclamation of those 
miraculous events at the very time when they are said to have 
occurred, and when there were numbers of persons able and 
willing to expose the imposture had there been any. And 
this argument for the truth of the Sacred History, is quite 
independent of any particular mode of appointing Christian 
ministers. It turns entirely on the mere fact of the constant 
existence of a certain order of men. 

This apostolical succession of a Christian ministry gene- 
rally is, however, to be carefully distinguished from the 
apostolical descent, in an unbroken line, of this or that 
individual minister. There is not a minister in all Christen- 
dom, who is able to trace up with any approach to certainty 
his own spiritual pedigree. The sacramental virtue (for such 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 389 

is implied, 'wlietlier the term be used or not, in the principle) 
dependent on the imposition of hands, "with a due observance 
of apostolical usages, by a bishop, himself duly consecrated 
and previously rightly ordained deacon and priest, and 
rightly baptized, this sacramental virtue, if a single link of 
the chain be faulty, must, on the above principle, be utterly 
nullified ever after, in respect of all the links that hang on 
that one. And wholly to exclude such irregularity, during 
the long period usually designated as the dark ages, would 
have required a perpetual miracle ; and that no such miracu- 
lous interference existed we have even historical proof, in the 
recorded descriptions, not only of the profound ignorance 
and profligacy of life of many of the clergy during those 
ages, but also of the grossest irregularities in respect of dis- 
cipline and form. To suppose the occurrence of a perpetual 
miracle in this case, when no such miraculous interference 
came in to secure the " apostolical succession" of right faith 
and right conduct, is to represent Christianity as mainly a 
system of outward ordinances; and to compel alike those 
who believe and those who disbelieve the plea, to come 
eventually to the conclusion that, what some regard as its 
essentials, a Christian faith, and a Christian heart, are 
comparatively a small part of it. 

In the case of the books of the Old Testament, we have a 
remarkable proof of their genuineness. They could never 
have been forged by Christians at all, because they are pre- 
served and highly reverenced by the unbelieving Jews in 
various parts of the world at this day ; although these books 
contain what appear, to Christians, most remarkable 
prophecies of Jesus, whom the Jews reject. These are the 
Scriptures which the Jews at Berea were commended for 
searching with diligent care, and the consequence of which 



390 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

searching we are told, was, tliat " many of them believed." 
Yet, though the people who lived in the times of the Apostles 
had seen these prophecies so far fulfilled in Jesus, as to afford 
good reason for receiving Him, we have an advantage over 
them in seeing the more complete fulfilment of the prophecies 
that have since taken place. For instance, that a religion 
should arise among the Jews, which would have a wide spread 
among the Gentiles, but yet that it should be a new religion, 
not the same as taught by Moses; and that this religion 
should spring, not from the whole nation, but from one 
individual of that nation, and he a person despised, rejected, 
and persecuted even to death, by his own people. All this, 
which is so unlike what any one would have foretold from 
mere guess, and which we see actually come to pass, is 
prophesied in books, which enemies of Christianity (the 
unbelieving Jews of this day) reverence as divinely inspired. 
And the proof from these prophecies is made very much 
the stronger by the number of distinct particulars which they 
mention ; ' some of them seeming, at first sight, at variance 
with each other ; but all of them agreeing with what has 
really taken place. Such a prophecy is like a complicated 
loch, with many and intricate wards, when you have found a 
key that opens it. An ordinary simple lock may be fitted 
by several different keys, that were not made for it : just as 
a loose general kind of prediction — of the coming of some 
great conqueror, or the like, — may have been made by guess ; 
and may be found to agree with several different events. 
But the more numerous and complicated are the wards of a 
lock, the more certain you are that a key which exactly fits 
it must be the right key ; and that one of them, the key or 
the lock, must have been made for the other. And so it is 
with prophecies that contain many distinct, and seemingly 



f 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 891 

opposite particulars, when we see the event fulfilling all those 
particulars. 

The Jewish people, in their present condition, are a kind 
of standing miracle ; heing a monument of the wonderful 
fulfilment of the most extraordinary prophecies that were 
ever delivered; which prophecies they themselves preserve 
and bear witness to, though they shut their eyes to the fulfil- 
ment of them. No other account than this of the present 
state, and past history, of the Jews ever has been, or can be, 
given, that is not open to objections greater than all the 
objections put together, that have ever been brought against 
Christianity. 

The testimony — whether positive or negative — of adver- 
saries and of indifferent persons is generally regarded to 
have great weight ; and the historic details, wonderful and 
miraculous as they are, of the Christian Scriptures are not 
without this important evidence of their truth. Not only 
have they the confirmatory negative testimony of the uncon- 
tradiction of their statements, though publicly put forth and 
generally known, but they have also the positive testimony 
of opponents. It is clear from the fragments remaining of 
the ancient arguments against Christianity, and the allusions 
to them in Christian ■v^Titers, and also from the Jewish 
accounts of the life of Jesus, which are still extant, under 
the title of Toldoth Jeschu, that the original opponents of 
Christianity admitted that the miracles were wrought, but 
denied that they proved the divine origin of the religion, and 
attributed them to magic. It is remarkable that in this book, 
Toldoth Jeschu, one, and only one, of the alleged miracles 
is denied ; so closely does it agree, in this respect, with our 
Sacred Writers, who describe the unbelieving Jews as deny- 



392 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

ing the fact of Christ's resurrection, but admitting the other 
miracles, and ascribing them to the agency of evil spirits. 
The prevailing notion among the ancients seems to have 
been, that a magician's power, however great, lasted only for 
his life. The resurrection, therefore, of Jesus utterly over- 
threw, in the minds of those who were convinced of the fact, 
a supposition of his being a magician. Now the Toldoth 
Jeschu must have been compiled (at whatever period) from 
traditions existing from the very first; for it is incredible 
that if those contemporaries of Jesus who opposed Him had 
denied the fact of the miracles having been wrought, their 
descendants should have admitted the facts, and resorted to 
the hypothesis of magic. And this admission of persons 
living so much nearer the time assigned to the miracles, is a 
most important evidence ; for, credulous as men were in those 
days respecting magic, they would hardly have resorted to 
this explanation, unless some, at least plausible, evidence for 
the miracles had been adduced ; and they could not but be 
sensible that to prove (had that been possible) the pretended 
miracles to be impostures, would have been the most decisive 
course ; since this would at once have disproved the religion. 

The admission by unbelievers of old of the miracles which 
attest the Christian religion, Avhile denying that a religion so 
attested was from God, is remarkable as a reverse of what is 
the case in modern times, when persons have been found, 
who, while professing themselves believers in Christianity, 
represent the disciples (how they came to be disciples these 
persons do not tell us) as having been led by zeal for their 
Master's honour, to exaggerate and misrepresent some of the 
occurrences which they record, and to invent others. The 
sick persons, for instance, healed by Him, they represent as 
having accidentally recovered just at the time when they 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 393 

were brought to Him. His walking on the water was, they 
tell us, merely a mode of expressing that He waded along a 
shallow portion of the lake ! And the five thousand were 
fed, not with the bread distributed to them by the disciples, 
but with what some of themselves had brought with them ; 
which, on that supposition, must have amounted to dhoxxi fifty 
liundred-iveigld; a quantity too conspicuous, certainly, to have 
admitted of any deception. 

All this would be simply ridiculous, from its excessive 
absurdity, if it Avere not so profanely presumptuous. And 
yet men are to be found, professedly at least, believing such 
things, and, all the while, imagining themselves not cred- 
ulous ! 

Then, again, come others, who sweep away with merited 
contempt all this tissue of extravagance, and declare that 
all the miraculous accounts in the Gospels were invented in 
the third or fourth century, after the religion had been firmly 
established in men's minds, and when it was received with 
such reverential awe, that stories of miracles connected with 
it were received with ready credence. 

These theologians (for such they call themselves) forget 
that they have substituted for those absurd interpretations 
which they discard, another absurdity quite equal to any of 
them. They tell us of what they suppose happened in the 
Christian ivorld, when the Gospel had been fully established ; 
but they forget to tell us how it came to be established ! 

Suppose some historian maintaining that the vast armies 
which Napoleon Buonaparte is described as bringing into the 
field, and his prodigious trains of artillery, and his wonderful 
victories, are far beyond the bounds of credibility, and are 
to be set down as legendary fables, or what are in modern 
times called myths ; and adding, that these splendid legends 
were gradually invented, and more and more exaggerated, in 



394 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

order to do honour to this Napoleon, after he had attained 
an empire, he having raised himself from a very humble 
station to that empire, and subjugated the greater part of 
Europe, at the head of a handful of unarmed followers, and 
without fighting any battles at all. If any one were supposed 
serious in maintaining such a theory, he would be reckoned 
an idiot or a madman. And yet such silly credulity has its 
parallel in that of those who, while rejecting the evidence of 
miracles, must believe that Christ and His Apostles did, 
without any superhuman powers, what we have the best 
reason for thinking no man without such powers could do, 
and what, certainly, without such powers, no other men, in 
like circumstances, have ever done. That a handful of Jew- 
ish peasants and fishermen should undertake to abolish the 
religion of the whole civilized world, and introduce a new 
one, in defiance of all the prejudices and all the power of 
this world arrayed against them; — that they should think to 
effect this by pretending to miraculous powers which they did 
not, and knew they did not, possess ; — and that they should 
succeed in the attempt ; — all this is, surely, many times more 
incredible than anything recorded in the Scriptures. For 
extraordinary, and in themselves improbable, as are the 
miraculous circumstances, all of them put together are as 
nothing in point of strangeness compared with the only 
alternative ; with what must be believed by any one who 
should, therefore, resolve to reject these miraculous narratives. 

Is it not, cseteris paribus, a greater effort of faith to exjject 
a miracle beforehand, than to believe in the narrative of a 
past one ? For in this latter case there is, on the opposite 
side, the difiiculty, whatever it may be, of accounting for a 
fqlse narrative of a matter of fact ; whereas, in regard to 
what is future, how much sooner some may expect it, then 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 395 

expectation is a matter of opinion. And a groundless ex- 
pectation or otiier opinion, is, as a general rule, less strong 
tlian a groundless narrative. And yet many there have been 
who have professed to disbelieve, or to reject all miraculous 
narratives, and many more who find in these their chief diffi- 
culty, yet possess a firm expectation, unencumbered by any 
sense of difficulty, of the gi-eatest of all miracles, — a future life. 

Parallels have been drawn by Hume, in his Essay on 
Miracles, and by writers professing themselves Christians, 
between the miracles recorded in the New Testament, and 
those in the legends of pretended saints, which last were 
received, just as counterfeit coin is, from its resemblance to 
genuine. 

The credibility of the New Testament Scriptures is estab- 
lished not alone by external evidence, but by internal marks 
of truth — by those peculiarities which distinguish the 
Christian revelation, alike from natural religion and all 
pretended revelations. Some few of these internal evidences, 
derived from the characteristics of the Scriptures themselves, 
may be thus summed up : — 

I. Not one of the books of the New Testament is attri- 
buted to Jesus himself; had there been any forgery, the 
forged books, or at least the principal of them, would natur- 
ally have been put forth as written by the very founder of 
the new religion, laying down the principles and precepts of 
that religion, and answering to the books of the law written 
by Moses. 

II. The omission of the title of Christians as applied by 
the earliest Christians to themselves, proving the antiquity 
of the books. The term, which was manifestly of Roman 



396 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

oridn, occurs but three times in the New Testament ; and in 
each case, manifestly, as employed-by those Avho were not 
Christians. This fact, (however it is to be accounted for, 
or whether we can account for it at all or not,) is one that 
would alone be a sufficient disapproval of the notion of some 
daring speculators, that the New Testament writings were 
composed in the second, third, or fourth century, from some 
vague floating traditions, and then, fathered upon the 
apostles and evangelists by fraud, carelessness, and igno- 
rance. Had this been the case, the title of " Christians," 
which was then in as common use as it is now, would undoubt- 
edly have been found in the books of the New Testament, in 
its present application by Christians to each other. This 
omission, then, alone furnishes, even to a plain unlearned 
reader, a complete proof of their antiquity. And the 
anxiety of infidels to disprove that antiquity, shows plainly 
how they despair of contending, in any other way, against 
their truth. Such books could never possibly, if false, have 
been circulated without detection, at the very time when 
the wonderful events related in them, are described as 
occurring. 

III. The character of Jesus himself, as drawn by the 
Evangelists. It is quite unlike all that had ever before 
appeared, or been described, or imagined ; and the picture is 
evidently an unstudied one. There is nothing in it of the 
nature of eulogium and panegyric. 

IV. The brief, calm, unadorned style in which the miracles 
and sufferings of Jesus and his apostles are narrated ; and the 
candid and frank simplicity with which the weakness and 
faults of the disciples are described. 

Y. The clear revelation of a future state, and the 

promise of eternal life through the resurrection of the body. 

VI. The different nature of that kingdom of heaven, 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 397 

proclaimed by our Lord and the apostles, from that glorious 
worldly empire which the Jews expected ; and the total 
absence of all attempt to accommodate the doctrines to the 
prejudices, or to flatter the pride, of the Jews, by holding 
out hopes of national or spiritual supremacy. 

VII. The absolute requisition of a morality stricter and 
superior in kind to any hitherto practised, or even approved ; 
and by this opposition, not merely to men's natural inclina- 
tions, but also in some points to their ideas of what is praise- 
worthy, proving the utter incredibility of mere ordinary 
human beings contriving a religion which condemns not only 
men's conduct but their principles. 

YIII. The mode by which that morality is inculcated, so 
peculiar, 1st, in the motives supplied ; 2ndly, in the examples 
proposed ; Srdly, in the precepts delivered. 

IX. The omission not merely, but the exclusion, of any 
sacrifice save that ofi'ered up by the founder of the religion 
in his own person ; of any sacrificing priest (Hiereus or 
Sacerdos) except Him, the great and true High Pi'iest, and 
consequently the exclusion of any priest, in that sense, on 
earth ; except so far as every one of the worshippers was 
required to present himself as " a living sacrifice, holy, 
acceptable unto God ;" and the exclusion of any temple, 
except the collected congregation of the worshippers them- 
selves. When it is remembered that the Gospel religion was 
introduced by men and among men, whether Jews or Pagans, 
that had never heard of, or conceived, such a thing as a reli- 
gion without priest, sacrifice, altar, or temple, is it credible 
that Christianity should have been without them, if it had 
been invented by men ? 

X. The practical character of the revelation, and the 
careful avoidance of all that could serve to mere speculative 
knowledge or the gratification of curiosity, however natural 

34 



898 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

or excusable, the ministering to which is a marked charac- 
teristic of all other religious systems. 

These characteristics, and many others that might be 
pointed out, would be very remarkable if met with in any 
one book ; but it is still more so when it is considered that 
they run through all the books of the New Testament, which 
are no less than twenty-seven distinct compositions, of 
several different kinds, written apparently at considerable 
intervals of time from each other, and which have come down 
to us as the works of no less than eight different authors. 
Infidels may reasonably be called upon to explain how, if 
Christianity be the invention of man, the Christian Scriptures 
the production of uninspired men, it comes to pass that they 
differ so materially from all other religions invented by man, 
and all pretended revelations put forward by man. And 
when they ask, is it likely that Christianity came from God ? 
they may be fairly met with the question, is it likely that 
Christianity came from man ? And the latter is much the 
fairer and more rational kind of enquiry, because we are 
much better able to judge what might reasonably be expected 
from man than from God. For human nature is our own 
nature, " but God's ways are not as our ways, nor his 
thoughts like our thoughts." It is much safer, consequently, 
to argue that Christianity did not come from man because 
it is not such as might reasonably be expected from man, 
than to argue that it did not come from God because it 
seems to us not such in all respects as the Deity would be 
likely to deliver to us. 

The dependence of the unlearned on the learned for 
translations of Scripture, is very far from amounting to a 
submissive reliance on their word, for all that Scripture 
contains and for the very existence of the Sacred Books. 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 399 

On the contrary, the known existence of several distinct, 
and even riva,l, versions of the Scriptures into English and 
many other modern languages, all substantially agreeing 
where there could not have been any concert, — all, even 
the most imperfect, exhibiting all the main facts and doc- 
trines of our religion, — this aifords to the unlearned reader a 
perfectly good ground for his acceptance of that religion, 
and a ground quite independent of any implicit reliance on 
the good faith and on the wisdom of the translators. All 
these translations, in short, are in the condition of witnesses 
placed in a witness-box in a court of justice ; examined and 
cross-examined by friends and enemies, and brought face to 
face with each other, so as to make it certain that any 
falsehood or mistake will be brought to light. Thus the 
strongest possible evidence of the general fidelity and trust- 
worthiness of the translations of the Bible which they read, 
is aiforded to unlearned Christians in a free country, where, 
every man being allowed to publish his sentiments on 
religious matters, any attempt to palm off a false translation 
of the Scriptures, would be immediately detected and exposed. 
It is just the same sort of evidence as that on which you 
believe that the earth is round, or that there is such a city 
as Paris, though you may have never been at Paris, nor ever 
sailed round the world. 

The prevalence of figurative language in Sacred Writers, 
may be regarded as something exhibiting marks of design. 
It is a remarkable circumstance, that a figurative style is 
perfectly retained in translation, in which every other excel- 
lence of expression is liable to be lost. It may be said with 
truth, that the book most necessary to translate into every 
language is chiefly characterized by that kind of excellence in 
diction which is least impaired by translation. 



400 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

In the Scriptures we have, as it were, a lasting picture of 
the Spirit of Truth, which we must consult in order that we 
may recognize Him, and reject false appearances. 

It is not in the Holy Scriptures alone that the Holy Ghost 
is present with the Church ; but it is by them, as a test, 
that his presence is in each case to be known. Whatever 
suggests to us anything not agreeable to God's written word, 
we may be sure is not from Him. 

He who studies the Scriptures is consulting the Spirit of 
Truth ; and if he would hope for His aid, must remember 
this, and search honestly and earnestly for the truth. 

All Scripture is in itself invulnerable ; and they who 
attack it, do but dash themselves to pieces against a rock. 

Christian conduct must be founded on Faith — a faith 
drawn from the Scriptures ; supported by Hope — a hope 
based on the Scriptures ; and guided by Charity — a charity 
learned from the Scriptures. 

The Scriptures venerated, yet not used, are no longer like 
the daily shower of manna to supply daily wants, but the pot 
of manna stored up with reverent care in the ark, as a 
curiosity. 

He who should think to make a voyage in safety, by hav- 
ing on board the ship a chart of the coasts he was to pass, 
shut up in a chest and never consulted, or, if taken out, 
merely glanced at, without any attempt to understand it, or 
to steer his course by it, would not be more a madman or an 
idiot than is the possessor of a Bible that he never reads, or 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 401 

reads at certain stated times, without endeavouring to learn 
anything from it, or to apply it to his own improvement. To 
such, the words of Scripture, whether in a strange language, 
or in his own, are no more than empty sounds, or mere black 
marks on white paper. 

The stream of religious knowledge should be continually 
traced up to the pure fountain-head, the living waters of the 
Scriptures. 

The admission of the necessity of human teaching, and the 
deference due to the judgment of the learned and pious, is 
quite consistent with the demand of Scripture proof. A 
town-clock is of excellent use in making publicly known with 
authority the correct time — making it known to many who, 
perhaps, at no time, and certainly not at all times, would find 
it convenient to verify its correctness for themselves. And 
yet it is clear, that one who maintained the great use and 
importance of having such a clock, would not be in the least 
inconsistent, if he also maintained that it might possibly go 
astray, and if he inculcated the necessity of frequently com- 
paring it with, and regulating it by, the dial which receives 
its light from heaven. 

Oifering to the people proof of doctrines from the works 
of the Fathers — works mostly untranslated, and far too 
voluminous for above one person in a hundred thousand to 
master — is something like offering to pay a large bill of ex- 
change in farthings, which, you know, it would be intolerably 
troublesome to count or carry. 

By "ancient" some persons understand what belongs to 
the first three centuries of the Christian era; some, the first. 
four; some, seven;- — so arbitrary and uncertain is the 
3-4* 



402 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

standard by wliich some, who tell us that we are hound to 
seek for a distinct authoritative sanction in some ancient writ- 
ings, some tradition, would persuade us to trj questions on 
which they, at the same time, teach us to believe our Chris- 
tian Faith and Christian Hope are staked. 

" Scire velim, pretlum chartis quotas arroget annus; 

* * 7(- * ■» * 

Est vetus atque probus, centum qui perfecit annos. 
Quid? qui dep.eriit minor uno mense vel anno, 
Inter quos referendus erit? veterisne?" . . . 

Horace, Epist., i., b. 2. 

To interpret the less known by the better known is reason- 
able ; but to reverse the process, as is done in interpreting 
the Scriptures by the writings of the Ancient Fathers, is as 
if a naturalist should take a fossil elephant as a standard by 
which to correct and modify the description of the animal 
now existing among us. 

The tendency to teach for doctrines the commandments of 
men, and to acquiesce in such teachings, is not the effect, 
but the cause, of their being taken for the commandments 
of God. 

The implicit deference due to the declarations and precepts 
of Holy Scripture, is due to yiotliing else. 

Tradition is not the interpreter of Scripture, but Scripture 
is the interpreter of tradition. What has come down to us 
for tradition, if agreeable to Scripture, is to be received ; if 
opposed to it, to be rejected ; if neither, is to be left in 
uncertainty. 

It is a foolish thing to say that tradition is to be held to, 
rather than Scripture, because tradition was before Scrip- 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 403 

ture ; since Scripture (that is, AYritten records) were used on 
purpose, after tradition had been tried, to guard against the 
uncertainties of mere tradition. Thus Luke tells Theophilus 
that he had written an account of our Lord's Jife and teach- 
ing, that Theophilus " might know the certainty (the exact 
state of the case) of those things wherein he had been in- 
structed." And John and Paul, upon two occasions (John 
xxiii. 23 ; 2 Thess. ii. 1 — 5), correct false reports (that is, 
traditions), which had gone abroad among Christians even in 
their own day. 

To believe that the Apostles would leave the essentials of 
Christianity to be collected from incidental allusions, or 
from doubtful traditions quite inaccessible to the generality 
of Christians, and about which the learned few are far from 
being agreed, is surely not to show reverence for them, either 
as inspired servants of God, or even as men of ordinary good 
sense. 

To found faith on an appeal to tradition, is to base it on 
the report of a report of a report of a report. 

Discussions, one sometimes meets with, as to the " credi- 
bility of tradition" generally, are as idle as Hume's respect- 
ing the credit due to testimony. One might as well enquire, 
"What degree of regard should be paid to books ?" as com- 
mon sense would dictate in reply, "What book?" so also, 
"Whose testimony? what tradition?" As each particular 
testimony and each particular book, just so, should each 
alleged tradition be examined on its own merits. 

Many defend oral tradition on the ground that we have 
the Scriptures themselves by tradition. Would they think 



404 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

that because they might trust servants to deliver a letter, 
however long or important, therefore they might trust them 
to deliver its contents by word of mouth in a message ? A 
footman brings you a letter from a friend, upon whose word 
you can perfectly rely, giving an account of something that 
has happened to himself, and the exact account of which you 
are greatly concerned to know. While you are reading and 
answering the letter, the footman goes into the kitchen, and 
there gives your cook an account of the same thing ; which, 
he says, he overheard the upper-servants at home talking 
over, as related to them by the valet, who said he had it from 
your friend's son's own lips. 

The distinction attempted to be set up between co-ordinate 
and subordinate tradition is but a fallacious one ; the real 
difference being only that every usurped and arbitrary power 
is usually exercised with comparative leniency at first. Let 
but the principle which is common to both systems be estab- 
lished, and the one may easily be made to answer all the 
purposes of the other. 

Tradition and Churcb Interpretation are made by a certain 
system, subordinate to, and dependent on. Scripture, much 
as some parasite plants are dependent on the tree, that 
supports them, gradually overspreading it with their own 
foliage, till by little and little they weaken and completely 
smother it. 

" Miraturque novas frondes, et non sua poma." 

As a man directed to take two medicines, as being both 
essential for his health, would most likely not take the pains 
to 'analyze the 07ie, when it was out of his power to analyze 
the other; but would rather take his physician's word for 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEaMS. 405 

both, — or at once reject both : so those, who blindly and 
uninquiringlj trust to a human spiritual guide, will be induced 
to take his word for everything alike. 

Some advocates of authoritative tradition who, while loudly 
proclaiming that they do not require assent to anything that 
may not be proved by Scripture, would yet have us receive 
a point of faith on their word and on their conviction that it 
is Scriptural, act in the same way, and produce the same 
effect, that a Government would do that should make a paper 
currency legal tender, and require belief of the existence 
and amount of the represented bullion on hand, and of its 
ability to produce it, not on the test of payment demanded 
and obtained, but on its own word — the word of the very 
Government issuing this paper currency ; which thus made 
inconvertible would supersede the precious metals, till they 
gradually disappear and leave nothing but a profusion of 
worthless paper. 

The Christian minister should ever remember, that the 
Apostles and Evangelists can teach Christianity better than 
he can, and carefully lead his flock to the study of their 
writings. He should instruct them, to the best of his ability, 
out of the Scriptures. He should teach them to search the 
Scriptures for themselves to see "whether those things be 
so," which they shall have heard from him ; and should warn 
them to trust in God, and not to transfer their allegiance to 
any uninspired man, and should caution them against being 
led away, by bold assertions and arrogant pretensions, into 
those corruptions of Gospel truth, which will always, from 
time to time, be found arising Avithin the Church. So shall 
they be enabled to "take up the serpents" they will meet 



406 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEaMS. 

•with, and "if they drink any deadly tiling it shall not hurt 
them." 

The fact that the Scriptures contain things hard to be 
understood, is no reason for laying them aside, but a very 
strong one for taking the more pains to understand them. 

If the Scriptures could properly be understood without 
any trouble, and could not be perverted to bad purposes, they 
would be extremely unlike the rest of God's gifts. 

As the laws of nature are in themselves invariable, but 
yet are sometimes imperfectly known and sometimes mistaken 
by natural philosophers, so the Scriptures are intrinsically 
infallible, but do not impart infallibility to the student of 
them. To complain of this, — to reject or undervalue the 
revelation God has bestowed, urging that it is no revelation 
to us, or an insufficient one, because unerring certainty is not 
bestowed also — because we are required to exercise patient 
diligence, and watchfulness, and candour, and humble self- 
distrust, — this would be as unreasonable as to disparage and 
reject the bountiful gift of eye-sight, because men's eyes have 
sometimes deceived them ; — because men have mistaken a 
picture for the object imitated, or a mirage of the desert for 
a lake ; and have fancied they had the evidence of sight for 
the sun's motion ; and to infer from all this that we ought to 
blind ourselves, and be led henceforth by some guide, who 
pretends to be himself not liable to such deceptions. 

Peter's implied censure of those who are unlearned (that 
is, ill acquainted -nith truths revealed in the Bible), and, as 
will naturally follow, "unstable," and likely to be "blown 
about with every wind of doctrine," should operate as a 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 407 

caution, not against the study of the Scriptures, but against 
the faults which -would lead us to wrest them to our de- 
struction. 

Any suggestion or persuasion that the Scriptures need not 
be read, or that the right interpretation of them requires no 
diligent care, and that we have such an infallible guide with- 
in us, or that some boastful pretender has such, as does 
away the necessity of candid, humble, patient study of the 
Bible, oj that we are at liberty to receive, or reject, or alter 
the sense of each passage, in conformity with what seems to 
our minds reasonable or not, in the same manner as when we 
are reading the work of any human writer ; every such sug- 
gestion comes from the proud and disobedient spirit who 
would lead us to imitate his presumptuous rebellion. Faith 
in ourselves, faith in the pretensions of man, are the very 
opposite to Christian faith, which is faith in God only. 

If we receive the heavenly light of God's Word, through 
the discoloured medium of our own prejudices and infirm- 
ities, its rays will give an unnatural tinge to everything on 
which they are shed, confirming, it may be, preconceived 
notions, or leading to false conclusions. 

To find in a passage of Scripture an argument in favour 
of a doctrine, is a very difierent thing from finding in it a 
revelation of the doctrine. 

We should search the Scriptures, not to defend our 
opinions, but to form them ; not merely for argument but for 
truth. 

An erroneous doctrine may sometimes spring from the mis- 
interpretation of a text of Scripture, oftener the misinterpre- 
tation from the doctrine. 



408 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

It is one thing to desire to have Scripture on our side, and 
another thing to desire to be on the side of Scripture. 

The passages quoted from Scripture in behalf of some 
practice, are often excuses, and not reasons for it. 

Many and various are the objections (some of them more 
or less plausible, and others very weak), that have been 
brought — on grounds of science, or supposed science — 
against the Mosaic accounts of the creation, of the state of 
the early vi^orld, and of the flood. And when answering 
these objections, it is important to lay down the principles 
on which either the Bible, or any other writing or speech, 
ought to be studied and understood, namely, with a reference 
to the object proposed by the writer or speaker. For ex- 
ample, if we bid any one proceed in a straight line from one 
place to another, and to take care to arrive before the sun 
goes down, he will rightly and fully understand us in refer- 
ence to the practical object which alone we had in view. 
Now we know that there cannot really be a straight line on 
the surface of the earth ; and that the sun does not really go 
down ; but whether the other party knows all this or not, 
matters nothing to our present object, which was not to teach 
mathematics or astronomy, but to make him conform to our 
directions, which are equally intelligible to the learned and 
the unlearned. 

Now the object of the Scripture revelation is to teach men 
not astronomy, or geology, or any other physical science, but 
Religion. 

In what relates to Divine Revelations, reason should be 
confined to those two points : — 1st, to judge of the grounds 
on 'which any professed revelation should be received or re- 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 409 

jected, as being "from heaven or of men;" and, 2ndly, to 
determine what it is that we are enabled and required to 
learn from the revelation which God has actually given. 

Men are too apt to treat Scripture as the poor dupes of 
Medea did their aged parent, in hopes of making him come 
out of the cauldron with increased vigour. They chop it up 
into separate texts, and stew it with the poisonous weeds of 
human speculation, in hopes of their producing a complete and 
beautiful body of divinity. 

The object of revelation is to teach religion, properly so 
called, which does not consist in the knowledge of human 
nature in itself, or of the divine nature in itself, but in the 
knowledge — and the practical application of the knowledge 
— of God in relation to man, and man in relation to God. 
To go beyond this, is to teach "philosophy and vain deceit, 
after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world 
and not after Christ." 

It is an important general rule in interpreting Scripture, 
that the most practical interpretation is ever likely to be the 
truest. In the precepts as well as the parables of Scripture, 
it is to the practical result that the attention is intended to 
be directed. For instance, this is the case even in the precept 
to "love thy neighbour as thyself;" for it is only figuratively 
that a man is said to love himself; the regard which he has 
for his own happiness being not in degree merely, but in 
hind very different from any benevolent affections towards 
another ; but the force of the precept is, that as we diligently 
seek to promote our own welfare without having any further 
object in view, so we ought also dihgently to promote the 
35 



410 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

■welfare of others, looking to nothing beyond. And this is 
practically sufficient. 

Amid all our ignorance and weakness what we best know 
is our duty. 

As the peasant who may be utterly ignorant respecting 
the progress of germination in the seed which he sows, the 
growth of the plant and its fructification, may yet have 
practical knowledge sufficient to enable him to prepare the 
soil for the seed, to raise the corn, and to gather in the 
harvest ; or as the ancient mariners steered their course in 
safety by those heavenly bodies whose magnitude, and 
distance, and motions they so imperfectly understood ; so 
also may the Word of God be a lantern to our steps, and " a 
light unto our path," even though we may have but a very 
imperfect understanding of the divine dispensation. 

If none of the doctrines necessary to be revealed for other 
practical purposes, were of sufficiently mysterious character 
to serve also for trials of faith, humility, and candour, in 
assenting to them on sufficient grounds, (a purpose which, as 
producing moral results, may be fairly reckoned a worthy 
and fit purpose, and a practical one,) we might then, perhaps, 
expect that some things should be proposed to our belief, 
solely and singly for this latter purpose. But if both objects 
can be fully accomplished by the same revelation — if our 
faith be sufficiently tried by the admission of such mysterious 
doctrines as are important for other practical ends also — 
then the revelation of any further mysteries, which lead to 
no such practical end, is the less necessary, and consequently 
the less to be expected. So that an exclusively practical 
character, is a probable mark of a true revelation. 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 411 

All pretended revelations wliicli have been the basis of 
distinct religions, and all corruptions of Christianity, all 
systems of religion — whether Pagan or Mahomedan, and all 
modifications of our own, however dissimilar they may be in 
other respects, however they may differ in the greater or less 
absurdity, or the greater or less immorality of their fables, 
legends and traditions ; in the number of them or the degree 
of credit they obtain — all agree in this one general charac- 
teristic, the general want of reference to human conduct, and 
in the leading, or, at least, one leading, object being to 
gratify human curiosity, to minister to that desire of know- 
ledge for its own sake without any reference to its utility, 
which is obviously a part of our nature. An ancient writer 
who well understood human nature, justly observes that 
things hidden, and things admirable, are what men espeoially 
covet to know. Now nothing can be more hidden, nothing 
more admirable than the nature and the works of God. The 
origin and constitution of the world we inhabit — of man 
himself, the nature of angels and of various orders of beings 
which may exist, superior to man, — and of the Supreme 
Being Himself; each of these subjects suggests innumerable 
matters of enquiry whose grandeur fills the most exalted, and 
whose difficulty baffles the most intelligent mind. Again, 
nothing could have been more deeply interesting than minute 
details of everything relating to the life of our great Master, 
however little connected Avith his ministry — such as his per- 
sonal appearance, his domestic habits, and all particulars 
relative to his parents. Is it not then natural, that men 
should eagerly seek for some superhuman means of informa- 
tion on subjects so interesting to their curiosity, and so 
much beyond their unaided powers ? And is it not conse- 
quently to be expected, that both the devices of an impostor, 
and the visions of an enthusiast should abound in food for 



412 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

this curiosity ? What then is in this respect the character 
of the Christian revelation ? It stands distinguished from 
all other religions, and even from all modifications of itself 
in its exclusively practical character, and its omission of 
everything that would serve merely to pamper vain curiosity. 
We have in the contrast thus presented in the wisdom and 
dignified simplicity of the Scriptures with the idle and arro- 
gant pretensions of human fraud and folly, a plain proof that 
our Scriptures were not of man's devising, that no impostor 
would, and no enthusiast could, have written them. Praised 
be the superhuman wisdom that has thus proved the divine 
origin of the Scriptures ! for what cannot have come from 
man must have come from God. 

When Paul describes the Gospel as being " to the Jews a 
stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness," he supplies 
a practical rule wherewith to test any representation of it. 
Whenever, then, such a representation of Christianity is 
made, as would not have been a "stumbling-block to the 
Jews," or such as would not have been " foolishness to the 
Greeks," it may at once be concluded that this cannot he the 
Gospel which Paul preached. 

He who would be of those who (in the words of the apostle 
Peter) " desire as new-born babes the sincere (unadulterated) 
milk of the Word, that they may grow thereby:" he who 
would learn the very Gospel which the apostles taught, just 
as it was received by their hearers, must in heart and spirit 
accompany the simple shepherds in their visit to Bethlehem 
to " see," not what human philosophy has devised, but — what 
"the Lord hath made known unto us." 

Doctrines, whether true or false, that are not revealed in 
Scripture, can constitute no part of the Christian faith ; and 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 413 

those wlio teach them as Gospel truths are answerable for the 
effects produced, not only on those who adopt the opinions, 
but also on those who reject them. * 

The question concerning the Origin of Evil is left by the 
Scriptures just where they found it. They neither introduce 
the difficulty, as some weak opponents contend, nor account 
for it, as is imagined by some not less weak advocates ; who 
having undertaken to explain it, and having, perhaps, satis- 
fied themselves and others that they have done so, are sure 
to be met by the very same difficulty re-appearing in some 
different form ; like a resistless stream, which when one of 
its channels is dammed up, immediately forces its way through 
another. He who professes to account for the existence of 
Evil by tracing it up to the first evil recorded as occurring, 
would have no reason to deride the absurdity of an atheist 
who should profess to account for the origin of the human 
race, by simply tracing them up to the first pair. 

It is a folly to regard the difficulty as to the origin of Evil 
in the light of an objection, either to our religion or to any 
other ; since it would lie equally against all, as indeed it does 
against any system of philosophy likewise ; for the ancient 
heathen were as much perplexed with doubts as to the origin 
of evil as we are. Even atheism does not lessen, it only 
alters, the difficulty ; for as the believer in a God cannot 
account for the existence of evil, so the believer in no God 
cannot account for the existence of good; or, indeed, for 
anything at all that bears marks of rational design. 

The Bible acts the part of a judicious physician, who, 
instead of entertaining his patients with a long and curious 
dissertation on the nature and origin of their disease, employs 
35* 



414 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

himself in actively administering remedies, and teaching them 
how to avaid them. Just so the Apostle Paul does not 
attempt to explain, e. g., to the Athenians the cause of the 
principal evil, the state of emnity against God, and exposure 
to divine displeasure, but proceeds at once to the practical 
point of describing the evil, and offering the cure. — " The 
times of this ignorance God winketh at ; but now com- 
mandeth all men everywhere to repent." 

To distort the plain meaning of Scripture, for the sake of 
defending religion against unsound objections, is to expose it 
to more powerful ones, which we have left ourselves without 
the means of answering. 

The true sense of each word is that which is understood 
hy it; and as a reader will naturally conclude a writer's 
meaning to be just what his words express in their simple, 
ordinary, and obvious sense, (except when some other passage 
from the same writer is produced, showing that his opinion 
was something different,) so, in interpreting Scripture, we are 
not to consider what sense the words can be brought to bear, 
but what sense they actually bore to the very hearers of 
Christ and his apostles, which we may be sure was that which 
they meant to convey, as being that in which they knew that 
the hearers understood them. 

The interpretation of any particular word occurring in 
Scripture, must not be dwelt upon so as to imply that each 
term must have, like one of the technical terms of any 
science, exactly the same meaning in every passage where it 
is employed. The words of the Sacred Writers are popular, 
not scientific. 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 415 

What was to the early Christians of plain common sense 
and moderate education, the natural and unstrained sense 
of the writings and discourses of the Apostles and Evange- 
lists, whose works have come down to us, as what we should 
seek to understand and to believe, if we would have our 
faith the same as theirs. If later Christians had been 
satisfied humbly to pursue this study, instead of human 
theories ; if Christian instructors had sought to fit themselves 
to explain, not those things concerning God which the 
Scriptures omit, but what they contain, — not what God has 
thought fit to keep secret, but what He has revealed, — 
there would have been less of what is reckoned abstruse 
theology, but more of pure Christian faith. Had they all 
thus honestly relied on Scripture, the mysterious doctrines 
of our religion would have been received in Christian sim- 
plicity, as Scripture reveals them, without any farther 
definitions and explanations than Scripture itself supplies ; 
and this would have been " able to make us wise unto salva- 
tion, through faith which is in Christ Jesus." But for vain 
philosophical systems of divinity, heresies would, probably, 
not have been multiplied as they have been. This, at least, 
is certain, that as scientific theories and technical phraseology 
gained ground, party animosity raged the more violently. 
Those who lose sight of the real character and design of the 
Christian revelation, generally lose the mild, patient, and 
forbearing spirit of the Gospel. " The servant of the 
Lord," says the Apostle, " must not strive, but be gentle 
unto all men, in meekness instructing those that oppose 
themselves." 

Whenever we approach, in imagination, the mighty Lord 
of all things, humbled, and become an infant lying in the 
manger, we should be reminded to " desire the sincere milk 



416 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

of the Word, that we may grow thereby ;" and that, receiv- 
ing " the kingdom of heaven as a little child," with a pure, 
and humble, and teachable mind, we may, at his second com- 
ing to judge the world, be found an acceptable people in his 
sight. 

So limited are our faculties for comprehending things as 
they are in themselves, that did not the Scriptures present 
dim and faint pictures of them, they could not otherwise be 
revealed at all. The " light which no man can approach 
unto," if presented, in unmitigated blaze, to eyes too weak to 
endure it, would blind instead of enlightening ; we now "see 
by means of the reflection of a glass," what we could not 
otherwise see at all. 

As analogy is the resemblance of ratios (or relations), two 
things may be connected by analogy, though they have in 
themselves no resemblance ; thus as a sweet taste gratifies 
the palate, so does a sweet sound gratify the ear, and hence 
the same word, "sweet," is applied to both, though no 
flavour can resemble a sound in itself. To bear this in mind 
would serve to guard us against two very common errors in 
the interpretations of the analogical language of Scripture. 

1. The error of supposing the things themselves to be 
similar, from their bearing similar relations to other things. 

2. The still more common error of supposing the analogy to 
extend further than it does, or to be more complete than it 
really is, from not considering in what the analogy in each 
case consists. 

The only truth essential in a Parable, is the truth of the 
moral or doctrine contained in it. 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 417 

Parables commonly use the analogy the most remote in 
all points but the one to be illustrated, on purpose to guard 
against following out analogy too far: so unjust judge, 
unjust steward, unkind neighbor, asked to lend three loaves. 

The picture and image of heavenly things, furnished by 
the analogical language and the types and figures of revela- 
tion, cannot in all points completely correspond with the 
original, any more than a picture can, in all respects, resem- 
ble the solid body which it is designed to imitate. 

To interpret too literally the analogical expression with 
which Scripture teaches, just as a blind man is instructed 
about sight and the objects of sight by comparing them with 
the other senses and their objects, is as absurd as to dissect 
a statue in order to find out what the inside of a man is 
like. 

When Paul says, respecting the glorified state, " whether 
there be knowledge it shall vanish away," we might have 
expected him, perhaps, to promise rather an increase of our 
knowledge ; but it appeared to him, probably, that the know- 
ledge we now possess concerning several points not fully 
comprehensible to us, is so utterly different in kind from 
that Avhich is reserved for us, that the change might more 
probably be called an entire vanishing of the notions we are 
at present able to form, and a substitution of others in their 
place ; just as the analogical notions of seeing a blind man 
had formed, would, on his obtaining sight, fade away, and 
be succeeded by others incomparably more direct and clear. 

The apparent contradictions in the doctrinal and moral 
precepts of Scripture are not to be regarded merely as diffi- 



418 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

culties to be surmounted, but as a mode of instruction 
peculiar to it — the employing of different analogies, each, 
severally, serving to correct the other, and all, jointly, 
conveying a notion as nearly as possible approaching the 
reality. 

The liability, so prevalent in all men, to imagine that a 
literal obedience to certain definite precepts is all that is 
required, is guarded against by the mode of conveying moral 
instruction adopted by our Lord. First, the precepts are 
often apparently contradictory to each other ; secondly, they 
are often such that a literal compliance would be, in many 
cases, either impossible, or at least extravagant and irrational ; 
and thirdly, this literal compliance would, in many instances, 
amount to so insignificant a point of duty, as could not be 
supposed deserving of a distinct inculcation for its own sake. 
Men are thus thrown on the application of a general principle 
to each particular case ; for a literal compliance with precepts 
which, literally taken, are inconsistent, would be impossible ; 
where that literal compliance would be wrong or absurd, it 
is manifest it could not be intended; where it would be 
trifling, it is manifest that it cannot be all that is intended. 

Two apparently opposite passages- of Scripture may 
together enable us to direct our faith or our practice aright, 
as, in mechanics, the combined effect of several impulses in 
various directions will propel a body in the direction required. 

When the Mosaic code was abolished, the Lord and His 
Apostles did not substitute in its place any other system of 
rules ; they laid down Christian jjrinciples ; they sought to 
implant Christian dispositions. And this is the more remark- 
ablej inasmuch, as we may be sure, from the nature of Man, 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 419 

that precise regulations, even though somewhat tedious to 
learn and burdensome to observe, would have been highly 
acceptable to their converts. It is much more agreeable to 
the natural Man (though at first sight the contrary might be 
supposed) to have a complete system of laws laid down, 
which are to be observed according to the letter, not to the 
spirit, — and which, as long as a man adheres to them, afford 
both a consolatory assurance of safety, and an unrestrained 
liberty as to every point not determined by them, — than to 
be left to his own discretion, no restraint being so irksome 
to him as this, while still required to regulate his conduct 
according to certain principles, and to steer his course 
through the intricate channels of life, with an incessant 
watchfulness and studious exercise of his moral judgment. 

Accordingly, most, if not all systems of Man's devising 
(whether corruptions of Christianity, or built on any other 
foundation) will be found, even in what appear their most 
rigid enactments, to be accommodated to this tendency of 
the human heart ; when Mahomet, for instance, enjoined on 
his disciples a strict fast during a certain period, and an 
entire abstinence from wine and from games of chance, and 
the devotion of a precise portion of their property to the 
poor, leaving them at liberty, generally, to follow their own 
sensual and worldly inclinations, he imposed a far less severe 
task on them than if he had required them constantly to 
control their appetites and passions, to repress covetousness, 
and to be uniformly temperate, charitable, and heavenly- 
minded. And had Paul been (as a false teacher always will 
be) disposed to comply with the expectations and wishes which 
his disciples would naturally form, he would doubtless have 
referred them to some part of the Mosaic Law as their 
standard of morality, or would have substituted some other 
system of rules in its place. Indeed, there is strong reason 



420 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

to tliink (especially from what we find in 1st Corinthians) 
that Paul had been applied to for more precise rules than he 
was willing to give. After such brief directions as the 
occasion rendered indispensable, he breaks off into exhorta- 
tions to "use this world as not abusing it;" and speedily 
recurs to the general description of the Christian character, 
and the inculcation of Christian principles. He will not be 
induced to enter into minute details of things forbidden and 
permitted, — enjoined and dispensed with ; and even when 
most occupied in repelling the suspicions that Gospel-liberty 
exempts the Christian from moral obligation, instead of 
retaining or framing anew any system of prohibitions and 
injunctions, he urges upon his hearers the very consideration 
of their being exempt from any such childish trammels, as a 
reason for their aiming at a more perfect holiness of life, on 
purer and more generous motives; "Sin," he says, "shall 
not have diminion over you : for ye are not under the laio, 
but under grace;'' and he perpetually incites them to walk 
"worthy of their vocation," on the ground of their being 
"bought with a price," and bound to "live unto Him who 
died for them;" — "as risen with Christ" to a new life of 
holiness, — exhorted to " set their affections on things above, 
not on things on the earth;" — as "living sacrifices" to God; 
— as "the temple of the Holy Ghost," called upon to keep 
God's dwelling-place undefiled, and to abound in all " the 
fruits of the Spirit," and as "being delivered from the Law, 
that we should serve in newness of the Spirit, and not in the 
oldness of the letter." These, and such as these, are the 
sublime principles of morality laid down by Paul, as every- 
where in Scripture, into a conformity with which the Christian 
is required to fashion his heart and his life, through that 
most effectual aid and guidance of the Spirit of Truth, who 
will enable us daily to profit by the teaching of the Word of 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 421 

Truth, to follow the example of Christ, and to purify our- 
Bclves even as He is pure ; that " when He shall appear, we 
may be made like unto Him, and may behold Him as He is." 

There are two things, each of which he will seldom fail to 
discover who seeks for it in earnest ; the one, the knowledge 
of what he ought to do ; and the other, a plausible pretext 
for doing what he likes. The latter of these the carnally- 
minded might find in any set of precepts that could have 
been framed, the former the spiritually-minded will not fail 
to obtain in the Gospel. 

Wisely designed for the spiritual exercise and training of 
the Christian's mind as was the absence in the New Testa- 
ment of a precise code of laws and the substitution of sublime 
principles, a not less striking instance of divine wisdom and 
goodness is presented to us in the absence of all formularies 
— the total omission of Liturgies, Catechisms and Creeds. 
Yet all these things we are sure must have existed. Now 
this omission is a fact which will appear the more remarka- 
ble, humanly speaking, the more the subject is considered. 
It is on all natural principles unaccountable, and, indeed, 
incredible, that none of the Apostles should have committed 
them to writing, or any of their numerous fellow-labourers, 
hundreds of whom must have been quite competent to the 
task, which would have been merely to write down what they 
heard, and once written they would be eagerly read, carefully 
preserved, and copied. Yet, what would have been seemingly 
so natural and so easy to do was done by no one. This or 
that individual might have been prevented from doing so by 
accidental circumstances ; but that every one of some 
hundreds should have been so prevented amounts to a 
complete moral impossibility. And as the drawing up of 
36 



422 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

such records would have naturally occurred to men of any 
nation, situated as the Apostles and their companions were, 
so it seems doubly strange that this should not have occurred 
to Jeivs, — to men brought up under that law which pre- 
scribed, with such minute exactness, all the ceremonials of 
their worship, all the articles of their belief, and all the rules 
they were to observe. 

There is no mode of explaining such an omission, except 
by concluding that the apostles and their attendants were 
supernaturally restrained from drawing up any such canons, 
liturgies, or creeds. And this conclusion is confirmed by 
the fact, that soon after the age of inspiration, and when 
men were left to act on their own judgment, they did draw 
up such Formularies, several of which have come down to us. 
We have, therefore, in this omission a Monument of a 
Miracle. The Christian Scriptures are in themselves a 
proof of their having been composed under superhuman 
guidance ; since they do not contain Avhat we may be sure 
they would have contained, had the writers been left to 
themselves. Every argument against the human origin of 
the Christian Scriptures is an argument in favour of their 
divine origin. 

And the argument is complete, even though we should be 
quite unable to perceive the reasons for this ordinance of 
Providence; but it is not difficult to discern the superhuman 
wisdom of the course adopted. We may be sure that, had 
the Apostles or their attendants recorded the particulars of 
their own worship, their forms of prayer, and their ecclesi- 
astical regulations, these would all have been regarded as 
parts of Scripture : and even had they been accompanied by 
thei most express declaration of the lawfulness of altering or 
laying aside any of them, they would have been, in practice, 
most scrupulously retained, however inappropriate through 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEUMS. 423 

changes of manners, tastes, and local and temporary cir- 
cumstances, they might have become. The Jewish ritual, 
designed for one Nation and Country, and intended to be of 
temporary duration, was fixed and accurately prescribed : 
the same Divine Wisdom from which both dispensations 
proceeded, having designed Christianity for all nations and 
ages, left these points to be determined according to the 
princijjles which had been distinctly laid down by divine 
authority ; while the application of those principles in 
particular cases was left (as is the case with our moral 
conduct also) to the responsible judgment of Man. 

With regard to catechisms, again, nearly the same reasons 
will hold good. For though the Christian religion is funda- 
mentally "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever," yet as 
it is impossible that any one mode of introducing its truths 
can be universally appropriate, they would have been like 
precise directions for the cultivation of some plant, admirably 
adapted to some particular soil and climate, but inapplicable 
in those of a contrary description. And as to Creeds or 
Confessions of faith, these are (not as some regard them, 
summaries of the most intrinsically important points of 
Christian doctrine, but) such compendiums as, standing 
opposed to the particular heresies in each age and country 
respectively, serve to test the professed orthodoxy of those 
who adopt them. And, therefore, had the apostles left 
Creeds or Symbols, they would have stood, like ancient sea- 
walls, built to repel the encroachments of the waves, and 
still scrupulously kept in repair, when perhaps the sea had 
retired from them many miles, and was encroaching on some 
different part of the coast. 

But supposing such a summary of Gospel truths had been 
drawn up and contrived with such exquisite skill as to be 
sufficient and well adapted for all, of every age and country, 



424 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

what would have been the result of its being provided in 
Scripture? Both would have been regarded, indeed, as of 
divine authority ; but the Compendium, as the fused and 
purified metal, the other as the mine containing the crude 
ore. And the Compendium itself, being not, like the existing 
Scriptures, that from ivhich the faith is to be learned, but 
the very thing to he learned, would have rendered needless 
the laborious searching of the rest of Scripture to ascertain 
its agreement with a human exposition of the faith ; and, 
consequently, would have left no room for that excitement of 
the best feelings, and that improvement of the heart, which 
are the natural, and doubtless the designed result of an hum- 
ble, diligent, and sincere study of the Christian Scriptures ; 
and without which our orthodoxy would be, as it were, petri- 
fied, like the bodies of those animals we read of inci'usted in 
the ice of the polar regions ; firm-fixed, indeed, and preserved 
unchangeable, but cold, motionless, lifeless. 

Proofs of any doctrine, obtained by a bringing together 
of passages from different, and apparently unconnected, parts 
of the sacred Volume, are far more important tOAvards con- 
viction than those derived from a single direct statement. 
Occasionally, one text affording the strongest confirmation 
of a doctrine, had no force at all in that respect until com- 
pared with another, and that perhaps with a third, each sepa- 
rately incapable of bearing upon the point in question, but 
all, together, composing an indissoluble argument, of so much 
the more force, indeed, as it precludes the possibility of 
having been inserted by human design. The proofs from a 
single text may be compared to a piece of precious ore found 
on the surface of the ground, which we cannot be sure might 
not have been dropped by some chance traveller ; the other 
kind of proof, to the same ore dug with labour from a mine, 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 425 

which is, we may be confident, derived from the place where 
we found it. 

An instance of complex proof of doctrines from the colla- 
tion of scattered texts of Scripture might be the comparison 
of the following passages: "All Scripture," says St. Paul to 
Timothy, "is given by inspiration of God" (2 Tim. iii. 15, 
16), and is " able to make thee wise unto Salvation, through 
faith which is in Christ Jesus ;" "of which salvation," says St. 
Peter (1 Peter i. 10), " the prophets have enquired and 
searched diligently — searching what or what manner of time 
the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify — unto 
whom it was revealed, that unto us they did minister the 
things which are now reported unto you by them that have 
preached the Gospel unto you, with the Holy Ghost sent 
down from heaven ;" and in this the apostle conj&rms the pro- 
mises in St. John's Gospel (John xiv. 26 ; xv. 26 ; xvi. 13) ; 
whilst in another Epistle he declares the inspiration of the 
old prophets also to have proceeded from the Holy Ghost ; 
" For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man ; 
but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy 
Ghost" (2 Peter i. 21). It is only in combination mih each 
other, that these passages throw light upon the inspiration 
of both the Old and New Testaments by the same Supreme 
Being ; and attest, at the same time, the unity of the three 
persons in the Divine nature. 

How admirable do the provisions of Divine Wisdom 
appear, even from the slight and indistinct views we obtain 
of it ! It has supplied to us, by revelation, the knowledge 
of what we could not have discovered for ourselves : and it 
has left us to ourselves, precisely in those points in which it 
is best for us that we should be so left. 
36* 



426 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

The division into cliaptei^s and verses, which, were intro- 
duced, merely for the convenience of reference, many hundred 
years after the sacred Books were written, are by some 
persons ignorantly supposed to be, like the chapters in modern 
books, the work of the authors themselves. And even those 
who do not fall into this mistake, are led, by their habit of 
attending to those divisions, unconsciously to separate in 
their minds passages which, in sense, are closely connected ; 
and thus to break up, as it were, the sacred books into dis- 
jointed fragments, so as to obscure, and often pervert, the 
meaning of the writers. One instance, among many, is the 
disjoining of the four last verses of the nineteenth chapter 
of Matthew from the first sixteen verses of the twentieth. 

A regular paraphrase of Scripture expands every passage, 
easy or hard, nearly to the same degree : it applies a magni- 
fying glass of equal power to the gnat and to the camel. 

Of the sacred Writers, no two write precisely alike. 
Though all of them Jews, though all taught one and the 
same Gospel, by one and the same Spirit, yet the variations 
of individual character are perceptible, even when in national 
character they all agree. 

It was requisite for the propagation of the Gospel in its 
purity, and for the edification of the infant Church, that the 
Holy Spirit should " lead the apostles into all (the) truth," and 
should pour out other supernatural gifts on other Christians ; 
so far therefore did his influence extend. But it was not 
necessary that all distinction of character among Christians 
should be done away, where these peculiarities had no evil in 
them ; or that similar spiritual gifts should be bestowed on 
all. Our religion was designed to renew indeed and amelio- 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 427 

rate, but not to subvert, our na.ture, — to amend mankind in 
general, but not to contradict the essential principles of the 
human character, — to exalt and purify each individual, but 
not to destroy his individuality. Here, therefore, the diversity 
was both permitted, and even augmented. This divine work 
may be compared to that which took place " in the begin- 
ning ;" " God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, 
it was yerj good ;" but all things were not made alike; the 
variety in the creation is infinite. 

The man who did not like details of the thino-s that con- 
cerned his friends might be a philanthropist, but could hardly 
have private attachmments. The Gospel records meet this 
feeling of our nature, being not merely historical, but strictly 
biographical. Brief as they are, they are fitted to introduce 
us personally to Him who called his disciples his "friends." 

He who is disposed to think that this or that transaction 
which we find in the Gospels, is not of sufficient consequence 
to deserve a vei-y attentive study, should recollect that every 
one we do find there is one out of a thousand — is selected by 
the writer, as being peculiarly striking, out of all that was 
said and done, during the short but most momentous period 
of our Lord's life on earth. We are to consider, not merely 
why such and such an occurrence took place, but why it was 
selected, in preference to a hundred others that were passed 

Our Lord's miracles maybe said to be acted parables ; for 
not only are they designed to answer their first and most 
important purpose, the proof of his divine authority, and the 
other purpose of the immediate relief of suffering, but they 
also conveyed some figurative representation of his character 



428 MISCELLANEOUS APOPIITHEaMS. 

and office, an exhibition of some emblem or token of the 
Gospel and its eflfects. 

An interpretation of actions as symbolical, that is, as 
conveying an instructive meaning, is (in Scripture) so far from 
being a fanciful departure from the plain literal sense of what 
we find there, that it is in fact, keeping to the established 
meaning of the language ordinarily employed by the sacred 
writers. To speak by significant actions, may be called a 
part of the language of the prophets and other sacred 
writers, with which, of course, the Jews were familiar. For 
instance, the mode of conveying the prophecy to Jeroboam ; 
and the prophesying of Jeremiah and Ezekiel during the 
greater part of their lives more by symbolical actions than 
by words. Thus, also, Jesus teaches his disciples humility, 
by placing a little child in the midst of them, and by washing 
their feet ; and most of his miracles are explained by Him, 
as having an instructive meaning. 

The miracle at the marriage at Cana had, as from being 
the first miracle performed by our Lord, it might be expected 
to have, a more extensive and important signification than 
any of the rest; — was not merely, like the rest, significant 
of some jjarticular doctrine, but generally expressive of His 
whole Gospel, — of the great object of His coming into the 
world. 

To perceive the symbolical character of the opening 
miracle of our Lord, its circumstances (remarkable, were it 
only for the minute details thought worthy of being recorded 
by writers who are, on the whole, so scanty and concise), 
must^ be attentively considered, together with several other 
sircumstances in the life and death of Jesus, and in the ex- 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 429 

pression used by Himself and His Apostles relative to these 
events. 

It is to be observed that the water which our Lord con- 
verted into wine, was put, bj his command, into those water- 
pots, which were designed for the purpose of ceremonial 
purification by washing, according to the rites of the Jewish 
religion : which rites, the Apostle Paul, when contrasting 
them Avith the real and efficacious purification through the 
sacrifice of Christ, calls "carnal ordinances." As Jesus 
might as easily, after having directed the servants to bring 
water in their other vessels, have converted that, at once, 
into wine, and sent it to the governor of the feast, he doubt- 
less adopted this particular mode of performing the miracle, 
to indicate that He was come to substitute the G-ospsl for the 
law, — to do away the Old Dispensation of outward ceremonial 
cleansings, and to put in their place the true atonement and 
expiation of his great sacrifice which " taketh av\^ay the sins 
of the world." For, as the water which was placed in vessels 
intended for purification, was aptly chosen by Him to repre- 
sent the whole of the ceremonial law, so it is to be observed 
in the next place, that wine, into which the water was changed, 
represented the blood of Christ, being the symbol of it which 
He Himself appointed at the last supper ; saying, " Drink 
ye all of this, for this is my blood of the New Testament 
which is shed for many." And again, " My flesh is meat in- 
deed, and my blood is drink indeed ;" signifying by this, as he 
tells us, his life, which he oflered up for the redemption of the 
world. " For the blood," says Moses, "is the life, and I have 
given it upon the altar to be an atonement for your souls ;" 
that is, for your lives ; the blood being the symbol of life. And 
thus too Paul, " The cup which we bless, is it not the com- 
munion " (that is, joint participation) " of the blood of Christ ?" 
The allusions, accordingly, in the writers of the New Testament, 



430 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

to the purifying and sanctifying influence of the blood of 
Christ, on all who have a lively faith in Him, are innumerable. 
Peter addresses Christians as " elect, through sanctification 
of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of 
Jesus Christ." "If we walk in the light," says John, "we 
have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus 
Christ cleanseth us from all sin." And the same Apostle was 
told, concerning the blessed whom he saw in his vision clothed 
in white robes, " These are they which came out of great 
tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them 
white in the blood of the Lamb." 

II. Jesus did not (as he might have done) cause wine to 
appear in vessels which were empty, nor direct that the 
water should be cast away, and then replenish the vessels 
with wine; but He changed the water into wine; thus 
indicating that He " came not (as He Himself tells us) " to 
destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil them." He 
did not cast away and abolish, as something evil in itself, or 
wanting in divine authority, the system of Jewish rites and 
sacrifices ; but He changed them for that which they signi- 
fied, and foreshowed, — even the Gospel. He substitutes the 
substance for the shadow, and brought the types to an end 
by putting in their stead the thing typified; "the blood," as 
Paul expresses it, "of the everlasting covenant," that is, of 
that which was not, like the Mosaic, to come to an end, and 
be superseded by another, but was to last for ever. And 
since " the law," as Paul says, "is holy and just, and good," 
it was fitting that what was chosen to represent it should not be 
anything of a vile or impure nature, though it were changed, 
— and changed for something more precious. Accordingly, 
the water on which Christ wrought this miraculous change, 
is a thing clear indeed, and pure and refreshing, but was 
converted into wine, which is invigorating and refreshing, 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 431 

and which was therefore ordained by our Lord as a token, 
a pledge, and a means of receiving the spiritual benefit of his 
sacrifice. "Whenever, therefore, we see the s^ramental cup 
filled for us in commemoration of Christ's death, and accord- 
ing to his holy Institution, we should remember that He 
deigned to sanctify that fruit of the vine, not only in the 
last (before He suffered), but in the ^rsf^ remarkable manifes- 
tation of Himself to his Disciples ; and that he who once 
changed the water into wine, literally, is able and is ready 
now, by an inward and spiritual working of the same divine 
power, to change the outward sign of partaking of the cup, 
into the partaking of his atoning sacrifice, and receiving of 
His Holy Spirit into our souls, of which spirit his flesh and 
blood are themselves the sign ; for "it is the Spirit," says 
He "that giveth life ; the flesh profiteth nothing." 

III. The introduction of a change of the Mosaic Law for 
something far more excellent, was not only unexpected by 
the Jews (notwithstanding the express declarations of their 
Prophets) but unacceptable and matter of offence to them. 
This circumstance, therefore, — the reservation of the more 
glorious dispensation for the time of the Lord's own coming, 
— was not left unnoticed among the significant circumstances 
which accompanied this remarkable miracle. It was inti- 
mated in the mystical meaning of the words of the governor 
of the feast (not understood by himself) when, expressing his 
surprise, he says, "Every man at the beginning doth set 
forth good wine, and when men have well drunk, then that 
which is worse ; but thou hast kept tlie good ivine until now.'" 

IV. It is to be observed, that the symbols of both our 
Lord's Sacraments were present on the occasion of this his 
first miracle, — water, by which He himself had just before 
been baptized, and which He chose as the emblem of the 
spiritual cleansing, and purifying efficacy of the Holy Spirit 



432 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

(as was indicated by the visible appearance of the Spirit 
descending on Him on tliat occasion), and wine, the appointed 
emblem of his blood ; and into which the water was changed, 
to point out that it is through his sacrifice that we are made 
partakers of the spiritual purification which Baptism denotes. 
V. Again, there are in the Sacred Writers perpetual 
allusions to the union between Christ and the Church (of 
which He is the Head), under the figure of a marriage ; to 
denote the affectionate regard which He bears towards this 
his spouse, his watchful protection and constant presence 
with her ("lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of 
the Avorld"), and also the spotless purity and devoted love 
which He looks for from her. In many of his parables. He 
alludes to Himself under the character of a Bridegroom ; 
and often describes the Kingdom of Heaven by the parable 
of a wedding feast. And as there can be no doubt, I think, 
that in so doing He alluded to this His mystical union with 
the Church, which was afterwards to be, by His Apostles, so 
strongly dwelt upon, and set forth, under that figure ; so it 
is more than probable that our Lord had in view when He 
chose a marriage-feast for the scene of this most significant 
miracle. His own marriage with the Church, which He 
"purchased for Himself," and sanctified with his own blood; 
with Avhom, hereafter, in her glorified and triumphant state in 
heaven, He will celebrate anew his mystical union, according 
to the vision seen by John in the Revelations (the very 
apostle Avho records the marriage at Cana) ; " Let us be glad 
and rejoice, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his 
wife hath made herself ready ; and to her Avas granted that 
she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white ; for the 
fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. And he saith 
unto me. Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the 
marriage-supper of the Lamb." 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 433 

The Law and the Gospel, like the flower and the fruit of a 
plant, corres2?ond in almost every point, but coincide in very- 
few. 

Many are the points in which " the law was our school- 
master to bring us unto Christ ;" and many an error pre- 
vailing among Christians might be cured, if they would but 
diligently listen to the voice of this schoolmaster, and profit 
by the lessons, which the Old Testament, if rightly under- 
stood, is capable of afibrding. 

It appears to have been part of the design of the Mosaic 
dispensation to exhibit to mankind a sensible specimen, or 
rather representation, by way of proof, of that moral govern- 
ment of God, the system of which is but imperfectly displayed 
in the world at large ; and which is to be completed, and 
fully realized, only in a future state. Without entering into 
a full explanation and defence of this hypothesis, let it be 
allowed to adopt for the present the supposition, merely as a 
siqjjjosition, that the Mosaic dispensation was, in part, 
designed for the purpose just mentioned ; that we may 
examine how far the peculiar circumstances of that dispensa- 
tion correspond with, and are explained by, it. 1. It would 
manifestly be necessary then, Avith a view to the object in 
question, that the Israelites should be exhibited as uniformly 
and regularly rewarded or punished, according to their 
obedience or disobedience to the divine commands. 2. And 
moreover, in order that the correspondence of their situation 
■with their conduct might be more conspicuously displayed, it 
was necessary that they should be nationally as well as indi- 
vidually prosperous or unfortunate, in consequence of their 
good or ill conduct ; since the fate of individuals would have 
been too obscure to engage general attention. 8. It was 
37 



434 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

requisite, for the same reason, that the obedience required of 
them'should not consist in moral rectitude alone ; because in 
that case the correspondence of their circumstances to their 
behaviour would not have been sufficiently manifest. For 
moral virtue consists, chieflj, in purity of motives, and 
propriety of inward feelings ; concerning which other- men 
cannot with any certainty form a judgment. It was requi- 
site, therefore, that their obedience should be tried in the 
practice of external rites, and in a conformity to certain 
positive ordinances. For these observances, though originally * 
matters of indiiference, assume a moral character, and 
become duties when enjoined by divine authority ; and the 
obedience or disobedience of a People on such points, is a 
matter open to general observation, and one which no one 
would be liable to mistake. 4. Lastly, with the same view, 
it was no less requisite that the rewards and punishments 
also, which should be the sanction of such a law, should be 
of a nature no less palpable, and open to general observation ; 
and should therefore not consist in anything inward and 
invisible, as in peace of mind, and in horrors of conscience ; 
nor in the hopes and fears of a future state ; but in the 
immediate and conspicuous distribution of outward worldly 
prosperity and adversity. 

The close correspondence, in all points, of the dispensation 
actually given, Avith the foregoing description, is no slight 
presumption that the object of that dispensation was, in part 
at least, such as I have supposed, viz., to exhibit to mankind, 
(to those, that is, who should be, in early times, neighbours 
to the Israelites, or have any intercourse with them, and 
subsequently to us, and to all others who should read their 
history, and view their present fate,) to exhibit, I say, a 
striking picture of God's moral government, — to convince all 
men of his superintending providence, — and to instruct them 



I 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 435 

in the principles of justice, hj vihich. his dealings with them 
■will be regulated. 

' Nor is it any valid objection to the explanation here offered, 
to sa\^, that the national blessings and national chastisements 
sent upon the Israelites, as a people, independent of what 
was enjoyed or suffered by individuals, could be no instance 
of the divine administration o^ justice : inasmuch as a nation, 
considered as a nation, is no real personal agent, nor capable 
of reward or punishment. For though it cannot properly be 
said to afford an instance or example of God's moral govern- 
ment, it may nevertheless serve equally well to furnish a 
figure and representation of that government for our instruc- 
tion, which is the object we have been supposing de- 
signed. Its not being really a distinct Being, does not render 
it the less fit for that purpose ; since men are able to form a 
distinct conception of it ; which is all that is requisite. A 
sufficient knowledge respecting a country may be obtained 
from a map, although that consists of papgl* and ink, and 
the other of land and water. 

In fact there are, throughout the Mosaic law, innumerable 
cases in which representations or figures are given of the 
divine justice which cannot be regarded as themselves in- 
stances of it. There are for example many occasions on 
which beasts are commanded to be put to death, as if 
criminal ; as when a beast approached the holy mountain, or 
occasioned the death of any man ; not that a brute can be 
supposed a moral agent, and in itself a fit object of divine 
punishment ; but yet the lessons of justice, of reverential 
piety, and of purity, which were by this means conveyed, 
were not the less intelligible. Thus a lamb without bodily 
blemish could have no real and intrinsic merit in the sight 
of God, but the sacrifice of this represented the meritorious 
sacrifice of Christ. Q;he same remark applies to the other 



436 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

types, figures, representations, in the Jewish ritual, of the 
various parts of that more perfect and final dispensation, 
■whereof we enjoy the reality. 

So far were Christian ministers from being instructed by 
their divine Monitor to keep the Old Testament out of sight, 
that there is no point more strenuously and uniformly insisted 
on, than the connexion of the Old and New Dispensations. 
Even in those places in which the great majority of the 
Christian brethren being converted Gentiles, it might have 
been supposed that the Old Testament would have been but 
little studied or thought of, Paul was so far from allowing 
the Jewish Scriptures to be depreciated, that he seems to 
have expected in all his converts, an intimate acquaintance 
with the Old Testament ; and to have earnestly, and not 
unsuccessfully, inculcated the necessity of interpreting the 
one scheme by the other, as two parts of one great whole, 
and of considering " whatsoever things were written afore- 
time as written for their learning." And the frequent 
allusions he makes to them as familiar to his hearers, and 
of acknovvledged value in their eyes, convey his judgment 
on the subject far more strongly than so many direct admo- 
nitions ; they indicate what was the early, the habitual, and 
the universal mode of instruction employed by himself and 
all the Christian teachers. No Christian, therefore, who 
would copy the pattern of this inspired teacher will leave the 
Old Testament out of sight ; but will learn from him that the 
former dispensation must be carefully attended to by one 
who would rightly understand the Gospel. 

He who studies, and leads others to study, the whole Word 
of God, as his inspired servants have left it, has at least goofl 
reason to hope, that he and they may, through God's spirit, 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 437 

attain truth without error ; whereas he who confines himself 
to a part of the Scriptures, is mrc to be wrong, and to lead 
others wrong if they are guided by him. 

An ambiguity in the word " Gospel," is deserving of notice, 
as it has been the source of much evil in leading to the 
neglect of the apostolic epistles. The word, which signifies 
according to its etymology, as Avell as the Greek term of 
which it is a translation, "good tidings," and is thence 
applied especially to the joyful intelligence of salvation for 
fallen man through Christ, has come to be applied, naturally 
enough, to each of the histories of the life of Him, the Author 
of that salvation. Hence men are frequently led to seek 
exclusively, or principally, in those histories for an account 
of the doctrines of the Christian religion : for where should 
they look, they may say, for " Gospel-truth," but in the 
"Gospels?" And because it is said that our Lord preached 
the Qospel, many are led to look to his discourses alone, or 
principally, as the store-house of divine truth to the neglect 
of the other Scriptures of the New Testament. But "the 
Gospel of the Kingdom" Avliich He preached was, that the 
" Kingdom of Heaven was at hand," not that it was actually 
established, which was the Gospel preached by his Apostles, 
when Christ "having been made perfect through sufierings," 
having laid the keystone of the Gospel scheme of salvation, 
in his meritorious sacrifice, as an atonement for sin, and his 
resurrection from the dead, had entered into his Kingdom — • 
had "ascended on high, and led captive" the Oppressor of 
men, and had "received gifts" to bestow upon them. Our 
Lord's discourses, therefore, while on earth — though they 
teach, of course, the truth — do not teach, nor could have been 
meant to teach, the whole truth as afterwards revealed to his 
disciples. They could not, indeed, even consistently with 
37* 



438 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

truth, have contained the main part of what the apostles 
preached, because that was chiefly founded on events which 
had not then taken place. He did indeed hint at these events 
in his discourses to his disciples, and to them alone, by way 
of prophecy; but we are told that "the saying was hid from 
them, and they comprehended it not, till after that Christ 
was risen from the dead." Had our Lord's discourses con- 
tained a full account of the Christian faith, there would have 
been no need of his saying, " I have yet many things to say 
unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, 
the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all (the) 
truth." And when, through inspiration from on high, the 
apostles did understand the Gospel, the true character of the 
redemption, and of the faith by which we must partake of it, 
they taught its doctrines in their discourses and in their 
epistles. Our chief source of instruction, then, must be in 
the Apostolic Epistles. They contain all the doctrines of the 
Gospel, as far as they have been revealed to men ; furnishing 
us with the means, by a careful and diligent study of those 
precious remains, of attaining sufficient knowledge of all 
necessary truth, and of becoming "wise unto salvation, 
through faith which is in Christ Jesus." 

To confine attention to the four gospels, as containing all 
important truth, and to neglect or explain away the remainder 
of the New Testament, is to act lik^ one who should destroy 
and reject as spurious excrescence every part of the fruit of 
a tree which was not fully developed in the blossom that 
preceded it. 

The most precious part of the treasure of Christian doctrine 
contained in the epistles we have from the pen of the apostle 
Paul. Those who prize the purity of the Gospel should value 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 439 

his writings the more, as there is no one of the Sacred 
Writers whose expressions have been so tortured, whose 
authority has been set so much at naught as Paul's, by those 
who reject many of the most characteristic doctrines of the 
Gospel ; which is a plain proof that they find him a formida- 
ble opponent ; not, indeed, as the only authority for these 
great truths, but as particularly full and clear in enforcing 
them. The Mahometans who acknowledge the authority of 
the four Gospels, though they pretend the Christians have 
interpolated them, hold the name of Paul in detestation. And 
besides the especial hatred of his writings by infidels, and by 
some description of heretics, no part of the Scriptures of the 
New Testament has been so unjustly neglected by some 
Christians, and so much perverted by others. 

There is good reason to believe that the objection to Paul's 
writings is not from the "things hard to be understood" 
which they contain, but from the things easy to be under- 
stood, the doctrines so plainly taught by him that " by grace 
we are saved;" that "the loages of sin is death, but eternal 
life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ;" that our most 
perfect righteousness can never enable us to claim reward 
at the hand of God, nor our own unaided strength enable us 
to practise that righteousness ; but that the meritorious 
sacrifice of Christ is the only foundation of the Christian's 
hope ; and the aid of his Spirit, the only support of the 
Christian's virtue. It is on account of these doctrines that 
Paul's writings are objected to, because they are humbling 
to the pride of the human heart, and therefore unacceptable 
to the natural man. 

There appears to be a very remarkable analogy between 
the treatment to which Paul was himself exposed during his 



440 MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 

personal ministry on earth, and that which his writings have 
met with since. In both he stands distinguished in many 
points among the preachers of the Gospel ; and it is possible 
that this distinction may in some way be connected with th© 
peculiar manner in which he became one of that number. 
The same Apostle who had been originally so bitter a perse- 
cutor of the Christians, was exposed after his conversion, to a 
greater variety of afflictions in the gospel-cause than any of 
the others. 

It is not unlikely that his Lord designed thus to place him 
foremost in fight, thus to assign to him, both the most 
hazardous and also the most harassing and distressing offices 
in the Christian ministry, on account of his having once been 
a blasphemer and persecutor. Not as a punishment, or again 
that he might atone and make compensation for his former 
sin (which no man can do) ; but that he might have an 
opportunity of completely retracing his steps, and of feeling 
that he did so ; that he might display a zeal, and firmness, 
and patience, and perseverance, above all the rest, in the 
cause which he had onoe oppressed ; that by having his own 
injurious treatment of Christians continually brought to his 
mind by what he himself endured, he might the more deeply 
and deliberately humble himself before God for it ; that he 
might find room to exercise in his dealings with unbelievers, 
all that full knowledge of the perverse prejudices of the 
human mind, with which his own memory would furnish him 
by reflecting on his own case ; and, finally, that both he and 
the other Apostles might feel that he was placed fully on a 
level with them, notwithstanding his former opposition to the 
cause ; by enduring and accomplishing in it more than all 
the rest, by suffering more than he had ever inflicted, by 
forwarding the cause of Truth more than he had ever 
hindered it, and by bearing with him this pledge that God 



MISCELLANEOUS APOPHTHEGMS. 441 

had follj pardoned liim, the pledge of his bemg counted 
worthy not only to sufier in his Master's cause, but to suifer 
more than any other, and with greater effect. 

He who had been accessory to the stoning of Stephen, 
himself, alone of Apostles, as far as we know, suffered 
stoning ; he who had been so zealous in behalf of the law of 
Moses, was destined to encounter not only unbelieving Jews, 
but those Christians also who laboured to corrupt Christianity 
by mixing the law of Moses with it ; he who had been, as he 
expresses it, " exceedingly mad against the disciples, and 
persecuted them even unto strange cities," was himself driven 
from city to city by enemies whose fury knew no bounds, 
both of his own countrymen, and of the senseless rabble of 
idolaters, who assailed him like " wild beasts at Ephesus." 
He who had misinterpreted the ancient prophecies respecting 
the Messiah, and despised his disciples, had to endure not 
only the contradiction and derision of unbelievers, but also 
the wilfulness and perversity of "false brethren," who mis- 
represented and distorted the doctrines he himself taught, 
and of arrogant rivals who strove to bring him into disrepute 
with those who had learnt the faith from him. In all these 
struggles, he was " more than conqueror, through Christ that 
strengthened" him. 

Still may Paul be said to stand in his works, as he did in 
person while on earth, in the front of the battle ; to bear the 
chief brunt of assailants from the enemies' side, and to be 
treacherously stabbed by false fi'iends on his own. And 
still do his works stand, and will ever stand, as a mighty 
bulwark of the true Christian faith. He, after having him- 
self "fought the good fight, and finished his course," has 
left behind him a monument in his works, whereby, " he 
being dead, yet speaketh ;" — a monument which his Master 



442 MISCELLANEOUS ArOPHTHEGMS. 

will guard (even till that day when its author shall receive 
the "crown of righteousness laid up for him") from heiug 
overthrown by the assaults of enemies, and from mouldering 
into decay through the negligence of friends. His labours 
can never be effectually frustrated except by being kept out 
of sight. Whatever brings him into notice will, ultimately, 
bring him into triumph. All the malignity and the sophistry 
of his adversaries will not only assail him in vain, but will 
lead in the end to the perfecting of his glory, and the exten- 
sion of his Gospel. They may scourge him uncondemned, 
like the Roman magistrates at Philippi; they may inflict on 
him the lashes of calumnious censure, but they cannot 
silence him ; they may thrust him, as it were, into a dungeon, 
and fetter him with' their strained interpretations, but his 
voice will be raised even at the midnight of unchristian 
darkness, and will be heard effectually ; his prison-doors will 
burst open as with an earthquake, and the fetters will fall 
from his hands ; and even strangers to Gospel-truth will fall 
down at the feet of him — even Paul, to make that momen- 
tous enquiry, "What shall I do to be saved?" 



THE END. 



LINDSAY &, BLAKISTON'S PU B L I C A FIONS. 

I %xn. Si}[ju Ciimming'B Sorb. 

UNIFORM EDITION. 

Price 75 cents per Volume, and sent by mail, free of postage, upon receipt ol 

this amount by the Publishers. 

CUMMmG'S APOCALYPTIC SKETCHES; 

OR, LEOTUEES ON THE BOOK OF REVELATTON. 

One Volume, 12mo. Cloth. 

CUMMIUG'S APOCALYPTIC SKETCHES. 

Second Series. One Volume, 12mo. Cloth. 

CUMMIHG'S LECTURES ON THE SEVEN CHURCHES. 

One Volume, 12mo. Cloth. 

CUMMIUG'S LECTURES ON OUR LORD'S MIRACLES. 

One Volume, 12mo. Cloth. 

CUMMING'S LECTURES ON THE PARABLES. 

One Volume. 12mo. Cloth. 

CUramNG'S PROPHETIO STUDIES; 

OR, LECTURES ON THE BOOK OE DANIEL. 
One Volume, 12mo. Cloth. 

CUMKIING'S miMOR WORKS. First Series. 

One Volume, 12mo. Cloth. This Volume contains the following : 

THE FINGER OF GOD, CHRIST OUR PASSOVER, THE COMFORTER. 

Which are all bound and sold separately. Price 38 cents. 

CUBimMG'S MMOE WORKS. Second Series. 

One Volume, 12mo. Cloth. This Volume contains the following: 

4 MESSAGE PROM GOD, THE GREAT SACRIFICE, AND CHRIST RECEIVING SINNERS. 

Which are also bound and sold separately. Price 38 cents. 

GUMMING' S MINOR WORKS. Third Series. 

One Volume, 12mo. Cloth. This volume contains the following: 

INFANT SALVATION, THE BAPTISMAL FONT, AND THE COMMUNION TABLE, 

Which are all bound and sold separately. Price 38 cents. 



The Rev. John Gumming, D.D., is now tlie great pulpit orator of LonrJon, as Edward Irving was Eoiaa 
>'(«!ity fears smce. His great work on the " Apocalypse," upon which his high reputation as a wntat 
res'?, hns already reached -ts twentieth edition in England; while his " Lectures on the Wiracleii,' 
■p.d those on " Diiniel," have passed through many ed'tions of 10(iO copies each and nis " Lertujes M 
liiiS Paiab'cs" through four editions, all withia a comparatively short time 



LINDSAY &, BLAKISTON'S PUBLICATIONS. 
THiTIFORM EDITION. PHICE 75 CENTS PEE VOLITME. 



CUMMmCx'S FAMILY PMYEES, 

FOB, EVEJ^Y MOENIIJG AlfD EVENIHG m THE YEAE, 

Mitl] 'gxtUxmm k ^^x^xmk Stricture gtabiiigg, 

IN TWO VOLUMES. 
JANUARY TO JUNE -JULY TO DECEMBER. 

TiEGEErT auESTioisrs. 

TWELVE URGENT QUESTIONS, PERSONAL, PRACTICAL, AND POINTED. 

In one 12mo. volume, cloth. 

sI(S s"'6¥'¥h¥TimesT 

OR, 

THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTTTEE. 

In one 12mo. volume, cloth. 

CUMMING'S MINOR WORKS. 

Price 38 cents per 'Voluine. 
THE COMMUNICANT'S MANUAL, 

A Plain and Practical Exposition of the Lord's Supper. 1 toI., cloth. 

INFANT SALVATION, 

Or, All Saved that Die in Infancy. Specially addressed to mothers mourning 
the loss of infants and children. 1 vol., cloth. 

THE BAPTISMAL FONT, 

Or, the Nature and Obligations of Christian Baptism, 1 voL, cloth. 

CHEIST OUE PASSOVEE, 

Or, Thoughts on the Atonement. 1 vol., cloth. 

A MESSAGE FEOM GOD, 

Or, Thoughts on Keligion for Thinking Men. 1 vol., cloth. 

IHE GEEAT SACEIFICE, 

Or, the Gospel according to Leviticus. 1 vol., cloth. 

THE COMFOETEE, 

Or, Thoughts on the Influence of the Holy Spirit. 1 vol., clotk. 

CHEIST EECEIVING SINNEES. 

One vol., cloth. 

The FINGEE of GOD, in Creation, The Spread of Christianity. &c 

One vol., cloth. 



tilltB^ K %\\\\Mu, ^^Ijilaklpljia; 



HAVE RECENTLY PUBLTSHED 



THE CHILDREN OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 



EEV. THEOPHILUS STORK, D.D. 



"Of such is the kingdom of heaven." — JesuS. 
- "How oft, heart-sick and sore, 
I've wished I were," once more, 
A little child." — Mrs. Southet. 



CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTION. — THE TVONDERS OP 
BETHLEHEM. 

The " Holy Child Jesus." The Child- 
hood and Youth of Christ. The De- 
vout Simeon, -with the Infant Saviour 
in his arms. Jesus among the Doc- 
tors in the Temple. The sympathy 
of Christ with little children. The 
beauty of childhood. Poetical quo- 
tations from Wordsworth. 

LITTLE CHILDREN BROUGHT TO THE 

SAVIOUR. 

Explanation of the scene in Mark x. 
13, 14. The Disciples' conduct. 
The probable reasons of their inter- 
ference. The Saviour's displeasure 
at their conduct. His affectionate 
welcome to children. How parents 
now may prevent children from 
going to Christ. An earnest dis- 
suasive from such deportment. The 
importance of example. The influ- 
ence of the home-spirit. The posi- 
tive duty of bringing our children 
to the Saviour. 

THE CHILDREN IN THE TEMPLE. 

Explanation of the temple-scene, Matt. 
xxi. 15, 16. The hosanna of the 
children. The displeasure of the 
priests and scribes. The Saviour's 
vindication of the children. Ps. 
viii. 2, explained. The importance 
of early impressions. Reformation. 



National education. Sunday schools. 
Facts, showing that children trained 
in religion will become the cham- 
pions of truth and virtue. Beautiful 
visions of the future. 

TIMOTHY. 

His early religious education. The 
influence of maternal piety. Eunice 
an example for the imitation of mo- 
thers. The " child father of the 
man." Instruction and piety com- 
bined. Encouragement to pious 
mothers. 

THE INFANTICIDE AT BETHLEHEM. 

Explanation of the scene. Seeming 
incongruity. Vindication of Divine 
Providence, in the massacre of the 
infants. Infant martyrs. The scene, 
suggestive of the following topics : 

1. The death of little children. Sources 
of consolation. Providence. Infant 
salvation. 

2. Mission of children. The advent 
of a little child in the family. The 
child at home. The sick and dyicg 
child. The memory. 

3. Children in heaven. Beautiful as- 
pect of the heavenly home. 

4. Eecognition. Difficulties of tti 
doctrine. Scriptural aspect of the 
subject. David. Recognition of tha 
loved and lost in heaven. 

Conclusion. 



One neat 12a?.o. Volume, Cloth, gilt. Price, 75 centB. 



liniisiiii k fokMm, ^.^IjilEtolpliia, 



HAVE JUST PUBLISHED 



HE SEPULCHRES OF OUR DEPARTED. 



RKV. F. R. ANSPACH, A.M., 

HAQERSTOWN, MAEYLAND. 



As flowers which night, -when day is o'er, perfume, 
Breathes the sweet memory from a good man's tomb. 
Sir E. B. Ltttow. 



CONTENTS. 



Communion witli the Pa-sfc. 

The Sacredness of the Sepulchre. 

Visits to the Sepulchres of our De- 
parted. 

Lessons which the Sepulchre im- 
parts. 

The Glory of Man. 

In the Sepulchre the Conflicts of Life 
end. 

At the Sepulchres of our Departed we 
may learn the Value of Life. 

The Sepulchre proclaims the Evil of 
Sin. 

The Sepulchres of our Departed ad- 
monish us to be gentle and kind to 
the Living. 

Posthumo^is Fame. — The Sepulchre 
instruc>a us hoiw to Live, so as to be 
remembered when Dead. 

Jhe Repose of the Holy Dead. 

The S'apulchre reminds us of the Value 
and Immortality of the Soul. 



The Hope of Resurrection divests the 
Sepulchre of its Terrors, and brings 
Consolation to the Bereaved. 

The Indestructibility of the Family 
Bond a source of Consolation to the 
Bereaved. 

At the Sepulchres of our Departed we 
may also learn the Right which God 
holds in us and our Families. 

Future Recognition. 

The Sympathy of Jesus with afflicted 
and bereaved souls. 

Our Present and our Future Home. 

Darkness turned to Light, or the Uses 
we should make of afflictions and 
bereavements. 

Grave-yards and Cemeteries, or the 
Claims of the Dead upon the Living, 
and the Care which should be be- 
stowed upon the Places of their Re- 
pose. 



One Volume, 12mo. Price, $1 00. 



LINDSAY &. BLAKISTON'S PUBLICATIONS, 



THE CAMP-FIRES OF THE REVOLUTION' 

OR, THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 

ILLUSTRATED BY THRILLING EVENTS AND STORIES BT THE 

OLD CONTINENTAL SOLDIERS. 

BY HENRY C. WATSON. 
With over 50 IIlustrations> 



CONTENTS. 
THE CAMP-FIRES 



At MiddleTjroob. 

At Middlcbrook (Continued). 

On. the Susqiieliannat 

At Springfi'eld* 

At Morristown. 

On tfie Pedee. 

In tlie Swampa 

On ttie Hills of Santcoa 

Near CIiarIeston« 



On Dorcliester Helghts» 
At Cambridge* 
At Slonnt Independence! 
At lioug Island* 
At Skippaclc Crcek> 
At Germantown. 
At Valley Forge. 
At WUiteinarsU* 
At White Plains. 
At Saratoga. 

A large Octavo Volume. Price in Cloth Backs, $1 75. Emoossed Leather, 
Marble Edges, $2 00. 

This work is well and pleasingly done, and the stories illustrate the ott.-repeated quotation thai 
" truth is stranger than fiction." To the young, this work will possess a perfect charm. If it shows 
lio>v liherty was gained, it may be equally instructive in pointing out its value, and the necessity of 
Its preservation. The style in which it is written is in strict accordance with the boldness of th« 
events and the spirit of the actors. — Americun. 

THE RAILROAD AND STEAMBOAT ANECDOTE BOOK; 

Containing Numerous Anecdotes, Conversational Opinions^ 
Choice Sayings, etc., 



FROM THB WRITINGS OF 
TOM HOOD, 

JUDGE HALIBURTON, 
CHARLES DICKENS, 



WASHINGTON IRVINa, 
SYDNEY SMITH, 
LORD BROUGHAM, 



AND OTHER CELEBRATBD AUTHORS. 

BY AN OLD TRAVELLER. 

WiTH ILLUSTRATIONS. 

A neat 12mo. Volume. Prico, Cloth, 50 cents. Paper, 75 centa. 

BERNARD BARTON'S LiFE, LETTERS, AND POEMS. 

BY HIS DAUGHTER. 

WITH A PORTRAIT. 
A neai i2iiiu. Yulume. 



LINDSAY 80 BLAKISTON'S PUBLICATIONS. 



WATSON'S IfEW DICTIOIfAEY of POETICAL CITJOTATIONS. 

Containing Elegant Extracts on every Subject. Compiled from various sources, 
and arranged appropriately, by John T. Watson, M. D. 

We view it as a caslcet filled with the most precious gems of learning: and fancy, anci so arranged hi 
to fascinate, at a glance, the delicate eye of taste. By referring to the index, which is arranged is 
mlphabetical order, you can find, in a moment, the best ideas of the most inspired poets of this coun'.rr 
»s well as Europe, upon any desired subject.— CAronzde. 



WELD'S SACREB POETICAL aUOTATIOIf S ; 

OR, SCRIPTURE THEMES AND THOUGHTS, as Paraphrased by the Poets 
Selected and arranged by the Rev. H. Hastings Weld. 

The design was an equally happy and original one, that of collecting the fine moral and religious 
passages of the poets which are paraphrases of the Scriptures ; and the execution of it has obvijuslj 
involved much labour, as it required the good taste and critical judgment which no one was beltei 
qualified than Mr. Weld to bring to the task.— North American. 



MISS MAY'S AMERICAN FEMALE POETS. 

With Biographical and Critical Notices, and Selections from their Writings. 

We regard this volume as a proud monument of the genius and cultivation of American women, and 
we heartily commend it to all our female readers as eminently worthy of their attention. — LouisviUt 
Journal. 

DR. BETHUNE'S BRITISH FEMALE POETS. 

With Biographical and Critical Notices, and Selections from their Writings. 

As a treasury of nearly all the best pieces from their pens, and as II manifestation of female talent, 
of woman's imaginative and sensitive excellence, and the influence they exercise over social manners, 
it IS a valuable contribution to English literature. The poems are selected with much judgment and 
good taste. — Ledger. 

OCTAVO EDITIONS OF EACH OF THE ABOVE FOR PRESENTATION, 
BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED 

Bound in Library Style, Marble Edges, . _ - Price $2 00 

" Cloth, full gilt, bevelled boards, - - - - 3 00 

" Turkey Morocco, full gilt, - - - - - 4 00 

" " " Antique, - - - - 4 50 

Also, 12mo. editions of each, in Cloth, gilt back.s, - - - 1 25 

« ' " " " full gilt, - - - 1 50 



LINDSAY & BLAKISTON'S PUBLICATIONS. 
THE YOUNG LADIES' HOME. 

BY MRS. I.. C. TUTHILL, 

AUTHOR OF "l WILL BE A LADY," "l WILL BE A GENTLEMAN," ETC. 

A new and beautiful Edition, enlarged. 

A Traveller betwixt life and iieath ; 

The reason firm, the temperate will, 

Endurance, foresight, strength and skill, 
To warn, to comfort and command ; 
And yet a spirit still and brig-ht, 
With sometliing of an angel iig:ht. — Wordsworth. 

In Cloth, Gilt Backs, 75 cents. In Full Gilt Edges, &c., $1 25. 

Thp object which the intelligent author of this volume has in view, is to awaken the attention of 
fanp.g ladies to the important duties of life which devolve upon them, after they have ceased their 
tcholastic exercises. In doing so, she endeavours to '.each them sometliing of the formation of cha- 
racter, and offers them various useful hints for their improvement, mentally and physically : eiplaiui 
to them the station they are to occupy in society, and sets before them in its true light the responsi- 
bility they incur by a neglect of their proper duties, in their too eager pursuit of the follies uf the day 
Siich a book cannot fail to be useful, and we hope it may be read extensively.— iiaWimore American. 

THE BROKEN BRACELET, 

AND OTHER POEMS. 

By MRS. ESLING, (Late Miss Watekman.) 

Price in Cloth, Gilt Backs, $1 00. 

"They are the poems of the affections, swelling forth from a heart chastened by the discipline of 
life, sympathising with all human sorrow, and loving the beautiful in nature and the true in senti- 
ment with unaffected fervour. 

TREASURED THOUGHTS FROM FAVOURITE AUTHORS. 

BY CAROLINE MAY, 

AUTHOR OF THE "AMERICAN I'EIIALE POETS," ETC. 

A neat 12mo. volume. Price $1 00. 

In this book all is sound, rational, and improving, calculated to promote delicacy of feeling and 
loftiness of sentiment, full of good sense and good taste. It is the best treasury of thoughts in the 
language. — Christian Intelligencer. 

CcLljiining many Gems oi Thought, from writers of the highest celebrity, on themes of pe-manent 
interest. — Observer. 

"Good taste and good judgment make the selections of these excerpts, which convey lessons in 
morals and wisdom in brief sentences, the best for seizing hold of the understanding, and remaimcg 
fixed upon the memory. 

FOREST FLOWERS OF THE WEST. 

Bt MRS. ROBERTS, (Late Miss Rickey.) 

WITH PORTRAIT, ETO. 

In Cloth, Gilt Backs, 75 cents. Full Gilt, $1 00. 

She possesses a warn, lively fincy, and true poetic feeling : her verse flowing pure and musical a* 
Hie waters of her own West. — Bulletin. 
This volume is destined to take its place among the nun;arous American poetesses whost charmiisj 
•rees expressive of womanW feeling enrich our literaturu.— Prcsfii/ierian. 



LINDSAY &.BLAK1ST0N'S PUBLICATIONS. 
THE SEPULCHEES OE OUE DEPARTED. 

BY THE REV. F. R. ANSPACH, A.M 

" As flowers which night, when day is o'er, perfume, 
Breathes the sweet memory from a good man's tomb." 

Sir E. L. Bulwer. 

Third Edition. In one Vol., 12mo. Price $1. Cloth, gilt. $1 50. 

This is a Tolum» to comfort and to cheer ; to render the grave familiar, and to deiive from its cod 
tomplalion the most encouraging hopes. A fine tone pervades the volume, and it abounds in just sea 
nments ornately expressed. We should be glad to see that general seriousness of feelmg which woulj 
nake such a volume ^opa\a.r.—Presbyteriaii. 

All Christians who are looking forward to the bliss of heaven, by passing through the tomb, will b« 
trengthened and comforted by glancing over the lessons here inculcated as addressed to the pilgrim 
a search of that belter country. — Christian Chronicle. 

THE CHILBEEIT OF THE KEW TESTAMENT. 

4. Beautiful Presentation Volume. By the Rev. Theophilus Stork, D. D., 
Pastor of St. Mark's Lutheran Church, Philadelphia. 

12mo., Cloth, 75 Cents ; in full gilt, $1 00. 

" How oft, heart-sick and sore, 
I've wished I were once more 

A little child."— Mr J. Southm/. 
The general contents, the devotional and lovely spirit that pervades it, the flowing, lucid, and rich 
diction, the sound sentiments, the ei.couragements to parents to bring up their children in the fear of 
the Lord, the abounding consolations for those who in God's providence have been called to yield up 
their little ones to Him who gave them, these and other characteristics, render tliis book one of the 
most interesting and valuable of the kind that has for a long time been presented to the public— 
Lutheran Observer. 

STETJGGLES FOE LIFE, An Autobiography. 
In One Vol., 12nio. Price $1 00. 

What Sunny and Shady Side are, as descriptive of American Pastoral Life, this delightful volume ia 
as descriptive of the Life of an English pastor. It describes, in a most felicitous style, his labours, 
trials, sorrows, pleasures, and joys. But, perhaps, its chief value consists in the vivid views it givei 
of human nature as illustrated in the leading characteristics of EngLsh society, manners, and custuaia. 
— Spectator. 

THE POETICAL WOEZS OF JAMES MOIfTGOMEEY. 

The only complete edition ; collected and prepared by him just prior to his death. 

With a Portrait. One Volume, octavo. 
Price, in Library style, $2 00 ; Cloth, full gilt, $3 00 ; Turkey Morocco, $4 00 

The poetry of the SheflSeld bard has an established reputation among serious readers of every class. 
The spirit of the humble Christian and the pure Philanihropist, breathes through it all; and few win 
tise from the perusal of Mr. Montgomery's poems without feeling the elevating power of his chaste 
Bfld beautiful ihies. We are glad to see such a favourite poet in such graceful altire. The typ« 
paper, Und entire "getting up" of this volume, is in tasteful accordance with the precious gems i« 
CiHitains, and reHects great credit 'he publishers. — Recorder. 



LINDSAY &, BLAKlSrON'S PUBLICATIONS 

PROCTOR'S HISTORY OF THE CRUSA.DES 

With 154 Illustrations. 



HISTOEY OE THE CETJSADES, 

IHEIR KISE, PROGRESS, AND RESULTS. By Major Peoctos, of tho 

Royal Military Academy. 



CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER I. The First Crusade. — Causes of the Crnsades — Preaching oi th6 
First Crusade — Peter the Hermit — The Crusade nndertalien by the Peop'e— 
The Crusade undertalieii by the Kings and Nobles — The First Crusaders at 
Constantinople — The Siege of Nice — Defeat of the Turks — Seizure of Edessa — 
Siege and Capture of Antioch by the Crusaders — Defence of Antioch by tho 
Crusaders — Siege and Capture of Jerusalem by tho Crusaders. 

CIIAPTER II. The Second Crusade. — State of the Latin Fina;dom — Origin 
of the Orders of Religious Chivalry — Fall of Edessa — Preaching of the Second 
Crusade — Louis VII. and Conrad III. in Palestine. 

CHAPTER III. The Third Crusade.— The Rise of Saladin— Rattle of Tibe- 
rias, and Fall of Jerusalem — The Germans undertake the Crusade — Richard 
Coeur de Lion in Palestine. 

CHAPTER rV. The Fourth Crusade.— The French, Germans, and Jtaliana 
unite in the Crusade — Affairs of the Eastern Empire — Expedition against Con- 
stantinople — Second Siege of Constantinople. 

CHAPTER V. The Last Four Crusades.— History of the Latin Empbe of 
the East— The Fifth Crusade— The Sixth Crusade— The Seventh Crusade- -The 
Eighth Crusade. 

CHAPTER VI. — Consequences of the Crusades. 



At the present time, when a misunderstanding concerning the Holy Places at 
Jerusalem has given rise to a war involving four of the great Powers of Europe, 
the mind naturally reverts to the period when nearly all the military powers of 
Europe made a descent on Palestine for the recovery of them from the possession 
of the infidels. It would seem that the interest in these places is still alive; and 
the history of the Holy Wars in Palestine during a considerable portion of the 
Middle Ages, maybe supposed to form an attractive theme for the general reader. 

Under this impression Major Proctor's excellent " History of the Crnsades" has 
been carefully revised, some additions made, a series of illustrative engravings, 
executed by first-rate artists, introduced, and the edition is now respectfully sub- 
mitted to the public. 

Tho editor, in the performance of his duty, has been struck with the masterly, 
clear, and lucid method in which the author has executed the work — a work of 
considerable difficulty, when we consider the long period and the multiplicity of 
important events embraced in the history; nor has the editor been less impressed 
with the vigorous style, and the happy power of giving vividness, colour, and 
thrilling interest to the events which he narrates, so conspicuous in Major Proc- 
tor's history. No other historian of the Crusades has succeeded in comprising so 
Cbmplote and entertaining a narrative in so reasonable a compass. 

i Handsome Octavo Volume, bound in Cloth, with appropriate Designs, $2 25 
" . " <' elegantly gilt, - - - - - 3 00 



LINDSAY &, BLAKISTON'S PUBLICATIONS. 



AN ILLUSTEATED LIFE OF MAETIIT LTJTHEE, 

THE GREAT GERMAN REFORMER. With a Sketch of the Reformation in Germany. 
Edited, with an Introduction, by the Rev. TnEOPHiius Stork, D.D., late Pastor of St 
Mark's Luthern Church, Philadelphia. Beautifully Illustrateb by sixteen designs, printed 
on fine paper. A handsome octavo volume. 

t*rlce) in clotli, gilt liachS) - - ■ > •> $S 00 

full giU, --B--- a 50 

• In embossed leather, marble edges, gilt backs, &c«, 2 S5 

The wirld owes much to Lather, and the Reformation of which he was the prominent leader, a>id 
ootmng:, save the pure, simple word of God, will do more towards securing the prevalence and per 
petuating the influence of the pnnoiples of religious liberty for which he and the other Reformer! 
contended, than the circulation of a book in which tlie mental processes by which he arrived at hn 
conclusions, are set forth. We can safely recommend this bonk as one that is worthy of a place in 
every dwelling, and we hope its circulation may be as wide as its merits are deservmg. — Evangelicai 
tttanazine. 

THE LIFE OF PHILIP MELAFCHTHON, 

THE FRIEND AND COMPANION OP LUTHER, According to his Inner and Outer Lifa 
Translated from the German of Charles Frederick Ledderhose, by the Rev. G. F. Krotei, 
Pastor of the Trinity Lutheran Church, Lancaster, Pa. 'With a Portrait of Melanchthoa, 
In one Volume, 12mo. Price ^1 00« 



THE PARABLES OF FEED'K: ADOLPHUS KEITMMACHER, 

From the seventh German edition. Elegantly Illustrated by Twenty-six Original Designs, 
beautifully printed on fine paper. A handsome demy octavo volume. 

Blegaiitly bound in clotb^ gilt backs, n a ■ Price $1 73 

full gilt sides, backs and edges, 2 •'30 

• • .. Turkey morocco, antique, " 4- 00 

The simple and Christian parables of ICrummacher, cliiefly the productions of his younger years, 
have acquired a wide popularity, and have long afforded a fund on which our periodicals have frcelj 
drawn. In their collected form they have pa.'ised through various editions in Germany, but we douM 
whether any of them have been so tasteful and beautiful in all their appliances as the one before us. 
The typography is very chaste, and the illustrations neat and appropriate. — Presbyterian. 



THE CHEISTIAN'S DAILY BELIGHTI 

A SACRED GARLAND, CULLED FROM ENGLISH AND AMERICAN POETS. BeautJ. 
ViUy Illustrated by Eight Engravings on Steel. 

In one volume, demy, octavo, clotb, gilt backs, » Price $1 .50 

full gilt sides, backs and edgesy ^ US 

tn this attractive volume we find much to please the eye ; but the most valuable roooinmer.dgtion 
•f the work is found ih the lessons of piety, virtue, morality, and mercy, which are thrown tiigelnei 
fct thiir many-coluuied garland of poetic flowers. — Episcopal Kecorder. 



LINDSAY AND BLAKISTOK 

PUBLISH 

A MANUAL OF SACKED HISTOHY; 

OR, 
A GUIDE TO THE UNDERSTANDING 

§t Ujt giljiiu llint at BM^dhn 

ACCORDING TO ITS HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
BY 

JOHN HENRY KURTZ, D.D., 

PROFESSOR OP CHURCH HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF DOEPAT, ETC. 

TRANSLATED FROM THE SIXTH GERMAN EDITION, 

BY 

CHARLES R SCHAEFFER, D.D., 

OPINIONS OF THE PEESS. 

"A very comprehensive, accurate, and methodical digest of the Sacred Hig- 
Urij — done with genuine thoroughness and scholarship. There is nothing 
am »ng our manuals of Biblical History that corresponds with this. It is sim- 
ple in style, and orthodox in sentiment." — N. Y. Evangelist. 



"The Observations (introduced by the author) are replete -with the resulta 
of extensive research — meeting objections and cavils, solving difficulties, ex- 
plaining obscure passages, reconciling apparent discrepancies, pointing out 
connectious, exposing and rectifying errors, unfolding the nature and design 
of sacred institutions and ordinances, and showing the relation of events, per- 
sons, institutions and prophecies, to the great central fact and theme of Scrip- 
ture, man's redemption through the incarnate Son." — Evangelical lieview, 
April, 1855. 

"This is the best book of the kind we have ever examined, and one of the 
best translations from German into English we have ever seen. The author 
makes no parade of learning in his book, but his exegetical statements are 
evidently founded on the most careful, thorough, and extensive study, and can 
generally be relied upon as among the best results, the most surely ascertained 
conclusions of modern philological investigation. We by no moans hold our- 
selves responsible for every sentiment in the book, but we cordially recommend 
It to every minister, to every Sunday school teacher, to every parent, and to 
everj intelligent layman, as a safe and exceeding!}' instructive guide, through 
the entire Bible historj', the Old Testament and the New. It is a book which 
actually accomplishes more than its title promises," &c. &c. — (Audover) BiblU 
•itheoa Saira, April, 1855. 



LINDSAY &; BLA'KiSTON'S PUBLICATIONS, 



MRS. LEE'S YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY. 



THE AFRICAN CEUSOES ; 

Or, the ADVENTURES OF CARLOS AND ANTONIO in the Wi^ds of Afrio*. 
With Illustrations. 



THE ATTSTRALIAIT WANDERERS ; 

Or, the ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN SPENCER, HIS HORSE AND DGQ, 
111 the Bush and Wilds of Australia. With Illustrations. 



ANECDOTES of the HABITS and INSTINCTS of ANIMALS. 

With Illustrations. 



ANECDOTES of the HABITS and INSTINCTS of BIRDS, 
FISHES, and REPTILES. 

With Illustrations. Each volume neatly bound in cloth, gilt backs, and sold 
separately at 75 cents ; or neatly put in a box together, price $3 00. 

MARY HOWITT'S BEAUTIFUL JUVENILES, 

ELEGANTLY ILLUSTRATED. 



MIDSUMMER FLOWERS, 

FOR THE YOUNG. By Mary Howitt. With Ten beautiful Illustrations. 
Price, bound in cloth, gilt backs, 75 cents. In full gilt edges, &c., $1 00, 



THE DIAL OF LOVE, 

A CHRISTMAS BOOK FOR THE YOUNG. By Mary Howitt. Ten bean- 
tiful Illustrations. Price, bound in cloth, gilt backs, 75 cents; in full cloth, 
gilt edges, &c., $1 00. 



MY NEIGHBOR'S CHILDREN. 

From the German. By Mrs. Sarah A. Myers. In 2 volumes, 16mo. Wilh 
Illustrations. Price $1 25. 

A spi'.ghtly and very effective tale. It preaches a kind of domestic gospel which every parent wOt 
•ee the beauty of, and perhaps feel the force of. Its inipre.ssion is both decided a«d gowJ.— 



LINDSAY &, BLAKISTON'S PUBLICATIONS, 



LINDSAY & BLAKISTOF, PHILADELPHIA, 

Publish the following Series of Books, which have received the approbation of ab 
Religious Denominations: 



HEAVEN, 

UR, AN EARNEST AND SCRIPTURAL IN QUIRY INTO THE ABODE OF THE SAINTED DEAD. 
BY THE REV. II. HARBAUGH. 

PASTOR OF THE FIRST GERMAN REFORMED CHURCH, LANCASTER, PA. 

In One Volume, 12mo. Price 75 Cents. 

THE HEAVENLY EECOGNITION, 

OR AK EARNEST AND SCEIPTURAI; DISCUSSION OP THE QUESTIOJT, 

^ill mt Innui our /rirnk in Irnnra? 

BY REV. 11. HARBAUGH. 

In One Volume, 12mo. Price 75 Cents. 

THE HEAVENLY HOME; 

OR, 

THE EMPLOYMENT AND ENJOYMEKTTS OT THE SAINTS IN HEAVEN. 

BY THE REV. H. HARBAUGH, 

AUTHOR OP "the HEAVENLY RECOGNITION OP FRIENDS," AND ''HEAVEN J 
OR, THE SAINTED DEAD." 

In One Volume, 12mo. Price $1 00. 

HARBAUGH'S FUTURE LIFE; 

CONTAINING 

HEAVEN, OR, THE SAINTED DEAD, 
THE HEAVENLY RECOGNITION, 
THE HEAVENLY HOME. 

HREE VOLlrMES, NEATLY BOUND IN CLOTH WITH GILT BACKS, AND A PORTRArf 
OP THE AUTHOR. PRICE $2 60. 



®~ Copies of the above Books, har.dsomely bound for presentation, in cloth, 
full gilt. Price of the first and second volumes, $1 25 each; of the third $1 oO. 



LINDSAY &, BLAKISTON'S PUBLICATIONS. 

THE GHRtSTIA N FA MILY LIBRARY. 

THE WOMEN OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT 

SCENES IN THE LIFE OF THE SAVIOUR. 

SCENES IN THE LIVES OF THE PATEIARCHS AND 
PROPHETS. 

SCENES IN THE LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 

Seat 12mo. Volumes, with Illustrations. Price per volume, in Cloth, Plain 
Edges, Gilt Backs, 75 cents. Full Gilt Edges, $1 00. In Setts, Cloth, Plain, 
• $3 00. In Full Gilt, $4 00. 

THE CHESTEeFIELOlA^ LIBRARY. 

MANUALS FOR THE POCKET OR CENTRE-TABLE. 



THE YOUNG HUSBAND, 

A MANUAL OF THE DUTIES, MORAL, RELIGIOUS, AND DOMESTIC, 
IMPOSED BY THE RELATIONS OF MARRIED LIFE. 



THE YOUNG WIFE, 

A MANUAL OF MORAL, RELIGIOUS, AND DOMESTIC DUTIES, 

BEING A COMPANION TO "THE YOUNG HUSBAND.^ 



ETIQUETTE FOR GENTLEMEN, 

%A, SHORT RULES AND REFLECTIONS FOR CONDUCT IN SOCIETY. 



ETIQUETTE FOR LADIES, 

WITH HINTS ON THE PRESERVATION, IMPROVEMENT, ETC, 
OJF FEMALE BEAUTY. 



THE HAND-BOOK OF ETIQUETTE, 

OR CANONS OF OOOD BREEDINa. 

BT THE AUTHOR OF "ETIQUETTE FOR GENTLEMEN." 



JOHNSON'S POCKET DICTIONARY. 

A NEW AND REVISED EDITION. WITH A PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR. 

Each volume neatly bound in Cloth, Gilt Backs, with an Illuminated Frontis- 
piece.. Price 58 cents, or in Full Gilt, 50 cents. In Setts, Cloth, Plain, $2 25 j 
Full Gilt, $3 00. 



I 



t 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: May 2009 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN COLLECTIONS PRESERVATION 

111 Thomson Park Drive 



